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Without Sheikh Mansour, Man City would not have won Champions League, says Guardiola
City has won seven Premier League, three FA Cups, six League Cups and the Champions League since it was bought by Sheikh Mansour in 2008
UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (centre), Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (right), UAE Vice-President, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) attend the Champions League final in Istanbul. — AFP
Pep Guardiola laughed when it was put to him that Manchester City could go on to chase down Real Madrid's record tally of European Cups after its victory over Inter Milan in Saturday's Champions League final.
"Be careful Real Madrid! If you sleep a little bit we will catch you," he joked in the wake of City's first triumph in Europe's elite club competition, which also saw the club complete a treble after it won the Premier League and FA Cup.
A Rodri strike gave City a 1-0 win at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium as it became European champion for the first time after several near misses in recent years.
The club has a long way to go to catch Real's record haul of 14 victories, and it would be some achievement if it ever gets there.
Yet it is tempting to look at Saturday's success in Turkey and wonder if it might definitively mark the start of a new era in European football.
Real, the great aristocrats of the sport, has resisted the rise of City and Paris Saint-Germain, teams backed by rich and visionary owners, to win the Champions League five times in the last decade.
The Spaniards were blown away by City in this season's last four, though, and Guardiola's side -- beaten by Chelsea in the 2021 final -- may take some stopping now it has claimed their first title.
"The good thing is that we want more," match-winner Rodri said. "This project is to want more, more ambition."
City is just the second English side to win the treble, following Manchester United in 1999.
It is an era-defining triumph for a club whose rise has been remarkable, as well as a potentially era-shaping moment.
City was in England's third tier the year its cross-town rival completed the treble.
United was reigning European champion while City had finished ninth in the previous season's Premier League when it was bought in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Vice-President, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court.
City had not won the English title in 40 years at that point.
It has just claimed a seventh Premier League in 12 seasons and has won three FA Cups and six League Cups since the takeover. Now the team has a first Champions League.
"Today's title is the result of a deliberate strategy developed 15 years ago," Sheikh Mansour said in a statement.
He attended Saturday's final, reportedly just the second match he has been to in that time, in which City has gone from also-rans to superpower.
Guardiola's brilliance has been key, but he acknowledges none of what City have achieved would be possible without the 2008 takeover.
"Listen, one of the main reasons why this club became what we are is because people from Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mansour, took over the club," said the Catalan.
"Without that we wouldn't be here. That is the most important thing."
City had the biggest revenues of any football club last year according to analysts Deloitte, of 731 million euros ($786m).
This team now looks set dominate European football, at least if it can keep Guardiola.
"I don't want after one Champions League to disappear, so we have to work harder next season and be there," he said.
It is not just City.
Qatar-owned PSG has come close before, losing the 2020 final to Bayern Munich.
It will surely eventually get there in Europe, perhaps next season with Kylian Mbappe spearheading the project.
Next season's Champions League will also feature Saudi-owned Newcastle United. Meanwhile, Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has been locked in a bidding war for Manchester United.
Many fans of the Old Trafford club, England's first European Cup winners in 1968, may feel that enormous investment from the Middle East is the only way it can now hope to catch City.
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