Unai Emery can extend his grip on the Europa League and do it with a third club if Aston Villa win Friday’s final at Tüpraş Stadyumu in Istanbul. The Villa manager has already won the competition four times, three of them with Sevilla and one with Villarreal, and he goes into the final chasing a fifth title that would deepen one of the most imposing records in European football.
Villa arrive there with momentum, too. Last week’s 4-2 win over Liverpool sealed fourth place in the Premier League and confirmed Champions League qualification with one match to spare, while also bringing Emery his 600th managerial victory. It was the latest step in a remarkable run for a coach in his fourth season at Villa Park, where he has taken the club from a side trying to re-establish itself in Europe to one preparing for only its second continental final.
Aston Villa’s only previous European final ended in their greatest night. They beat Bayern Munich to win the European Cup in 1982, and the club are now trying to claim their first major trophy since 1996. Their route this season has been built on steady progress rather than spectacle: they finished second in their group, then knocked out Lille, Bologna and Nottingham Forest, overturning a 1-0 first-leg loss to Forest with a 4-0 second-leg win.
Emery’s record is what makes this final feel heavier than a normal title match. He has managed in six major continental finals in 13 years, won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2014, 2015 and 2016, then lifted it again with Villarreal in 2021. He also took Arsenal to the 2019 final and lost to Chelsea. Few managers have been tied so closely to a single competition, and few have delivered as often when the stakes are highest.
There is still a limit to how far the numbers can be stretched. Giovanni Trapattoni also won the competition with two different clubs, taking it twice with Juventus and once with Inter, while Jose Mourinho won it with Porto and Manchester United. Emery could move beyond both men on Friday, not by matching them, but by becoming the first to take the trophy with a third club.
That possibility hangs over Villa’s final in Istanbul because it captures both sides of Emery’s legacy. He is widely known as Mr Europa League, but at Villa he has also built a team strong enough to qualify for the Champions League and reach the quarterfinals last season, then push on to another European final. Arne Slot’s praise after the Liverpool defeat summed up the challenge Villa pose, with the Liverpool manager saying that even scoring two goals there was an achievement in itself.
The final now offers Villa something more concrete than reputation. It is a chance to turn a season of progress into a trophy, and to turn Emery’s European habit into history that no other manager has managed.
