Julian Alvarez has made history by becoming the first player to win a treble of European Cup, league and domestic cup – and a World Cup – in the same season. Nine players before him had won the European Cup or Champions League and the World Cup in the same season, but none had won the domestic double as well. Alvarez, a 23-year-old Argentine forward, finished the season as Manchester City’s second top scorer with 17 goals, despite starting fewer than half their games, and was the third top scorer at the 2022 World Cup. City won the Premier League title by five points from Arsenal, beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final and saw off Inter Milan in the Champions League final – after Argentina beat France in the World Cup final in December.
Alvarez beat Inter Milan’s Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez to this record, becoming the 10th player to become European champion with his club and world champion with his country in the same campaign. Of the other nine, six were Bayern Munich and Germany team-mates in 1973-74 – and the other three played for Real Madrid in different years in the Champions League era. Christian Karembeu, with France in 1998, Roberto Carlos, with Brazil in 2002, and Raphael Varane, with France in 2018, all won the World Cup in the same year as the Champions League with Real.
Alvarez also becomes the 13th player to win the Champions League and its South American version, the Copa Libertadores. He played in the 2018 final between River Plate and Boca Juniors, which River won 5-3 on aggregate after extra time. He had played for almost three years solid without a break from football before signing for Manchester City in January 2022. This season he played 49 games for Pep Guardiola’s side, starting 23 of them, scoring 17 goals in all competitions. He also went to Qatar with Argentina and won the World Cup, scoring four goals in five matches as they won the tournament. His success also sees him winning 13 different trophies, including the Copa America and a few smaller cups – but never winning the same one twice.