Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Watching Man City win Champions League with Sheikh Mansour 'special'

Khaldoon Al Mubarak has described watching Manchester City win the Champions League final alongside owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed as “special” as well as relief at finally ending the club's wait to get their hands on the European Cup.

A 1-0 victory over Inter Milan at Turkey's Ataturk Olympic Stadium on June 10 completed a historic treble for Manchester City. A week earlier they lifted the FA Cup for a seventh time thanks to a 2-1 win over Manchester United having also collected the 2022/23 Premier League trophy.

It was City's third league title in succession and their seventh since the City Football Group purchased the club on September 1, 2008.

Since that day the goal has always been to see City crowned kings of Europe, and Manchester City chairman Al Mubarak described in a video interview what it meant to witness the triumph alongside Sheikh Mansour, UAE Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court in Istanbul.

“The most special. I mean, it's incredible,” Al Mubarak said in an interview released by the club Monday. “For Sheikh Mansour, given everything he has given to this club, given all the commitment, years of support, love, he's given passion to the club. And at the pinnacle, the final of the Champions League, to be here, to be able to attend it. He has so much love for this club and working with him over the last 15 years as part of City Football Group. He deserves this. He really does. And I'm so happy he was there yesterday.”

City have reached one previous Champions League final, losing the 2021 championship match to Premier League rivals Chelsea. They were knocked out of the semi-finals by Real Madrid last year in gut-wrenching circumstances but prevailed in the 2023 final