John McGinn said Aston Villa can put themselves in the history books as they prepared to face Freiburg in the UEFA Europa League final in Istanbul on Wednesday. The Villa captain said the 2025/26 final at Beşiktaş Park meant everything to a club chasing its first European trophy in more than four decades.
McGinn has lived almost every step of the club's rise. The Scotland midfielder has made more than 300 appearances in all competitions across eight seasons at Villa, and his two strikes from outside the box in the semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest helped send them through. Now he wants one more night that matters most. “We can put ourselves in the history books,” he said, adding that the chance to redeem themselves made the occasion even bigger.
Aston Villa have not lifted a trophy since the English League Cup in 1996, a span that has hung over a club once used to success in English and European football. They reached a European final for the first time since 1982 after falling short in recent seasons, losing to Olympiacos in the 2023/24 Conference League semi-finals and then being beaten by Paris in last season's Champions League quarter-finals. Wednesday's final offers them a clear shot at ending that run.
Unai Emery has given Villa a strong platform for the test ahead. The head coach has won four of the five finals he has managed, and McGinn said the Spaniard had changed the belief and ambitions of the place almost single-handedly. “I can’t speak highly enough of what he’s done here,” he said, calling their relationship a strong one and saying Emery could trust him in any position he chose.
The final still reduces everything to one night and one result. McGinn said Villa were “so close now” but also warned that it came down to “90 minutes” in Istanbul, where one win would turn years of near misses into a place in the club’s record books.
