Man Utd vs Spurs: Winner takes it all. Plus: End-of-season awards and Kevin De Bruyne’s statue

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Hello! Step aboard for a Europa League ding-dong. It’s the only show in town.

On the way:

🏆 All or nothing in Bilbao

🥊 UEFA and FIFA war

↕️ Liga MX in pro-rel legal action

🤯 Staggering De Bruyne miss

End of a journey: Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and the promise of a classic final

(Design: Eamonn Dalton; photos: Getty Images)

The conversation around tonight’s Europa League final has been consumed by the consequential aspects: the £100million Champions League ticket, the world in which victory is the making of Ruben Amorim at Manchester United, the chance (or probability) that Tottenham Hotspur will sack Ange Postecoglou, no matter what.

These things matter, and they’re about to be dealt with. The lights go down at Bilbao’s San Mames stadium in a matter of hours. But to stop United versus Spurs being all business, what harm in making room for a little romance, too? It’s the crux of the sport, when all’s said and done.

This morning, The Athletic published messages from friends, families and former colleagues of the players at Tottenham. Tales such as James Maddison washing his manager’s car at Coventry City as a punishment for a misdemeanour remind you that European finals are the end of long roads. Some players are contesting their first this evening. Some might never appear in a second.

One of the letters, to Spurs midfielder Archie Gray, is written by his cousin, Nick. It talks about the back-garden games that raged when they were kids, and the fact that Gray’s younger brothers were at each other’s throats over a bad tackle last weekend. Gray has only just turned 19. The back garden was his domain not that long ago. Now it’s the adrenaline rush of a winner-takes-all spectacle, the dream of the big time realised.

Who needs it more?

Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim need this final — for different reasons (Getty Images)

The Europa League is the poor relation of the Champions League, but honestly? Nobody involved gives a monkey’s about that once the bell sounds, and the crusade to be in Spain later has been epic. San Mames’ capacity is middling at 53,000 (nowhere near big enough for these clubs and sadly, the provisions for disabled fans sound less than adequate too). Plane tickets soared to over £1,000 ($1,350) for a two-hour flight.

Jack Pitt-Brooke, one of our Tottenham writers, joined those who cut costs by taking a ferry from Portsmouth to northern Spain, a journey of 34 hours. We’ll skirt around him losing the ship’s pub quiz. Those trips are an odyssey — particularly because it’s a slight mystery how Spurs and United have made a £100m shot out of their otherwise appalling seasons.

United’s necks-on-the-line quarter-final win over Lyon must make them think this is meant to be. Laurie Whitwell has captured the delirium of their run (and reminded me of the relevance of Haji Wright’s toenail). Tottenham found a backbone in Europe too, though despite that, the jungle drums say Postecoglou’s race as head coach is probably run.

So, who needs victory more? Financially, United’s need is more acute. That’s not up for debate. They’re horribly in debt and the Champions League is a step back towards the beaten track for Amorim (above right). But in a sporting context, it’s Postecoglou (above left) who’s crossing his fingers. He’s most likely a goner regardless of the result, but what better way to fight his corner than becoming Spurs’ first trophy-winning coach since 2008?

The final has so many sub-plots, and you’ll get the latest in our live blog. We’ll be back with the fallout as the dust settles tomorrow. But my advice? Park all that for now and enjoy the tear-up. Magic first, business later.

📺 Europa League final: Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports.

FIFA vs UEFA 🤼 Football’s governing bodies square off after congress drama

FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his counterpart at UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin (Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic; photos: Getty Images)

May is showcase time for UEFA. Beyond the Europa League, it’s the Conference League final next Wednesday and the Champions League final a week on Saturday. European football’s governing body positions its tournaments to dominate the end of each season.

But UEFA is distracted by a simmering feud with FIFA, its global counterpart. The dispute flared up publicly last week when UEFA delegates walked out of the annual FIFA congress, in protest at Gianni Infantino’s delayed arrival. Infantino, who had been in the Middle East with United States President Donald Trump, showed up three hours late for his own party.

Tensions run much deeper than time-keeping, though. To gauge by the tone of Adam Crafton’s piece, UEFA believes FIFA’s tanks are on its lawn. “An uneasy truce has been broken,” according to one person Adam spoke to, and Infantino is faced with malcontents.

Beefing up the Club World Cup looked like an aggressive move into the club scene from FIFA, creating a prize pot not far off that of the Champions League. By 2042, Europe won’t have staged a World Cup exclusively for 24 years. Infantino is fixated on closing the gap between the UEFA powerhouse and other parts of the globe — but nobody in football surrenders ground without a fight.

News round-up 🗞️

Awards Season 🥇

The Athletic dished out our men’s and women’s end-of-season awards last night, only for Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush to make his claim for goal of the year a couple of hours later. Zero marks for timing, my friend.

To my mind, the winners of our awards were pretty much spot on. There’s an argument to be made for Liverpool’s Arne Slot being Premier League manager of the year ahead of our choice, Nuno Espirito Santo, but it’s all too easy to underestimate the miracle of turning a side threatened by relegation into one vying for the Champions League. Nottingham Forest have been an overnight eruption.

Sonia Bompastor, in contrast, was untouchable in the Women’s Super League. It’s a shame the Champions League got away from Chelsea because they’d be looking at a quadruple otherwise.

There was a time when we were talking about Liverpool’s men doing four trophies but they fell short of three, despite Mohamed Salah driving them on. Salah claimed our men’s player-of-the-year prize, with a new record of goals plus assists in a 38-game Premier League term. In tribute, Gregg Evans has written about the hospital pass of competing against Salah, with insight from those who have tried.

This made me chuckle: Salah taking no prisoners in a 5-0 win against Watford and then trying to glean an extra kernel of knowledge by asking Watford’s goalkeeper which way he would have dived had Liverpool been awarded a penalty. He’s just relentless.

Around The Athletic FC

And Finally…

The Etihad Stadium said cheerio to Kevin De Bruyne yesterday, in his final home game for Manchester City. He’s been so legendary — six Premier League titles, one Champions League, passing on a telepathic scale — that they’re going to build a statue of him.

One small suggestion: don’t base the statue on the chance he had to sign off at the Etihad with one last goal (above). There’s virtually nothing about De Bruyne I could replicate… but my creaking bones would have buried that.

(Top photo: A Spurs fan takes in the pre-final atmosphere; Getty Images)

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