Ezri Konsa said Aston Villa’s Europa League final victory still had not sunk in after the final whistle, calling the trophy a reward for the supporters who stayed with the team through “a lot of ups and downs” over his seven years at the club. Speaking to TNT Sports after the win, the defender said the moment was for the fans, who had been through “thick and thin” with the players, and added that his message from the start had been simple: believe.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Konsa said. “Seven years at this club… a lot of ups and downs… to finally bring back some silverware for this club and the fans… look what it means to the fans… and the players… the fans have been through thick and thin with us, so this is for them.” He pointed back to a letter he wrote in The Players’ Tribune, saying he had told Birmingham supporters to believe and thanking those who did.
The scale of the night was clear in the numbers. Aston Villa’s celebrations came after a final in which the team closed out the game with the trophy in sight, and the mood around the ground turned to relief and release after years of trying to get back among Europe’s best. Konsa, who arrived at Villa seven years ago, said he had wanted to finally bring silverware back to the club and its supporters, a line that landed because of how long the wait has been.
John McGinn put that wait in sharper focus. He said Villa’s owners bought the club seven years ago when it was close to being “in a right bad way” and had one remit: get the club back to the Premier League, then restore it to the level it had before. For McGinn, the final was not just one win, but “everything we have built coming together.”
He said the feeling was especially intense with Villa 3-0 up and 10 minutes left, when he started to think they were European champions. “The pride I felt 3-0 up with ten minutes to go, thinking ‘we’re European champions’ was something I can’t even describe,” McGinn said. His words matched the tone of the night: less of a single breakthrough than a long climb finally ending in sight of the summit.
The celebrations that followed underlined that sense of arrival. Villa formed a guard of honour for the officials and Freiburg at the trophy presentation, before McGinn joined Dennis Mortimer and Ken McNaught in lifting a European trophy for Aston Villa. Unai Emery also joined the team photo after the win, and the scenes around the presentation were joyous, the kind of images supporters had waited years to see again.
The broader context is what gave the night its edge. Villa’s rise has been measured against a period when the club was struggling badly, and the immediate post-match scenes were framed by the memory of that near-collapse as much as by the final score. Konsa’s letter to Birmingham fans, and his reminder to “believe,” now sits beside the trophy itself as part of the story.
That is why this final matters beyond one night. For Konsa, it was the answer to seven years of waiting. For McGinn, it was proof that the rebuild had reached a point where Villa could call themselves champions of Europe again. What comes next is the part Villa supporters will measure against everything that follows: whether this is a one-off peak, or the start of a standard the club now expects to keep.
