The ultimate record-breaking preview to the UEFA Champions League Final

By Ralph Hannah
Published

While no side is close to equaling last year’s champion Real Madrid overall trophy haul – the Spanish giants have 10 titles – there are plenty of individual records that could be broken this weekend. 

Messi Barcelona UEFA Champions League 2015

Lionel Messi is only 27 but he already has won 23 titles with Barcelona and going into the final he is the joint all-time topscorer in the Champions League (exc. qualifiers) with 77 goals, he needs just one goal to take the record outright from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi is also joint topscorer with Cristiano this year, they are both on 10 goals. Should Messi remain top of the charts after 90 minutes he will have been the single season topscorer a record five times, one more than legendary German international Gerd Muller. 
Another Barcelona player, Spanish international Xavi this year surpassed Ryan Giggs as the player with most appearances in the Champions League, he has 156 to date. He has also won the most games in the tournament with 90 wins, one more than his international teammate Iker Casillas of rivals Real Madrid.
Juventus have four previous champions in their side, Carlos Tevez won the competition in 2008 with Manchester United as did Patrice Evra, while Andrea Pirlo did so twice with AC Milan. Alvaro Morata won the title last year with Real Madrid and could follow in the footsteps of Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa, and Samuel Eto’o as players to appear in final victories in consecutive years with different clubs.  The player to win the trophy with the most different clubs is Clarence Seedorf who did so with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan between 1995 and 2007.
Tevez Juventus UEFA Champions League 2015
Should Juventus lose they would suffer double misery, taking the record outright for the most European Cup/Champions League final defeats. They’ve lost five times (1973, 1983, 1997, 1998 and 2003) the same as Benfica and Bayern Munich.
 
Good luck to both teams and keep an eye out for possible records!