Of the 14 gauchos that reached the quarterfinals in this cup, none of them reached the most important club match, and Latin America will be represented by 3 Brazilians and 1 tico

Leer en español: Por primera vez desde 2013 no habrá argentinos en la final de Champions

The teams that will compete in the final of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League on May 26 in Kiev, Ukraine, are Real Madrid of Spain and Liverpool of England. Real Madrid and Liverpool do not have any albiceleste in their squads, so no Argentine will participate in the great final of the UEFA Champions League this season. The last time Argentina did not have a representative in the decisive match of the highest European club competition was in 2013, when Bayern Munich faced Borussia Dortmund.

Leja em português: Pela primeira vez desde 2013, não haverá argentinos na final da Champions

Up to 14 Argentine players reached the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals of the current season, which proves that Argentine football always feeds several players to the best European leagues. However, these Argentine representatives did not meet expectations and failed to reach the grand final.

FC Barcelona, ​​Juventus, Roma, Manchester United, Manchester City, PSG, and Chelsea are just some big clubs whose squad has at least one Argentine figure. Messi, Higuain, Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Pastore, Dybala, and Otamendi, among others, are perhaps the most representative Argentine players in Europe, but none were able to lead their team to the final of the Champions League.

In the current season of Champions the Argentine "ambassadors" were few in the final stages, because although it is already clear that no Argentine will play the final, it should be noted that only two gauchos were present in the semifinals (Perotti and Fazio for Rome). Up to 11 Argentine players were eliminated in the quarterfinals, among them great figures such as Lionel Messi, Higuain, Dybala, Éver Banega, Gabriel Mercado, Nico Pareja, Otamendi, and Sergio Agüero.

The last Champions League final in which no Argentine was part of either of the two finalist clubs was played by Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the 2012/13 season. From that final on, there was at least one Argentine "ambassador" in all the decisive matches, until the streak in the current season was broken.

In the final of the 2013/14 season between Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid, Argentines Di Maria and José Sosa were present. In the final of the 2014/15 season between FC Barcelona and Juventus more Argentines participated, as Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez, and Roberto Pereyra played the crucial game. In the final of the 2015/16 season between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, Argentine Augusto Fernandez took part, and in the final of the 2016/17 season between Real Madrid and Juventus the Argentines Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain played.

Latin America and its limited quota in the Champions League final

On the other hand, Brazil, which has had at least one representative in the Champions League finals since the 1999/00 season, will have 3 emissaries in the Kiev final: Marcelo Vieira and Carlos Casemiro with Real Madrid, and Roberto Firmino with the Liverpool.

The other Latin American who will participate in the grand final is the Costa Rican Keylor Navas, goalkeeper of Real Madrid. Latin America's participation in this final of the Champions is very low, taking IGNORE INTO account that in the final of last season there were 8 Latinos on the court, in the final two seasons ago there were 7, and in the final three seasons ago there were 8 Latinos.

Maybe this panorama portrays the current level of Latin American football. This is not a good precedent for Argentina if one takes IGNORE INTO account that less than 40 days remain before the 2018 World Cup begins, where the Albiceleste will seek the third World Cup in its history.

LatinAmerican Post | Javier Aldana

Translated from "Por primera vez desde 2013 no habrá argentinos en la final de Champions"