/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65435755/1171631816.jpg.0.jpg)
For any top footballer, there is no bigger prize to aspire to at the club level than the Champions League. In fact, it’s second probably only to the World Cup when it comes to trophies the game’s star’s want to win.
So once you’ve won it, what next? According to Gini Wijnaldum, you look to what Real Madrid have done in recent years, with the Liverpool midfielder saying now that he has one, he wouldn’t mind making it two or three.
“I really wanted to win the Champions League once,” the 28-year-old Dutch midfielder told De Volkstrant this week. “Now I want it again. Look at Real Madrid winning it three times in a row. I would like something like that.”
While the Premier League is the obsession for Liverpool fans, and while there’s no doubt that for the top players it represents one of the game’s top honours, the Champions League has always had a certain aura about it.
Not just the best in your league but in all of Europe, playing against the game’s best and proving you’re not just one of them but that you’re better. It’s easy to see the appeal for a player—and why Wijnaldum wants it again.
“We have seen what it does with the city, with your career, and with the club,” he added. “That is addictive. It’s just a very good feeling when you think back on it because it is a prize that is so very difficult to win.”