Martin Ødegaard said Arsenal want to make even more history when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on Saturday, with the club one win away from a first European crown.
The Arsenal captain said the Premier League title the team won before this final has only sharpened that appetite. “It was 22 years since we last won the Premier League, and now finally, we did it. So we want to make even more history,” he said on the eve of the match. “When you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy, you know how nice it feels. So obviously we want to do it again.”
For Arsenal, the stakes are clear. A victory would deliver the Champions League for the first time in the club’s 140-year history and add a trophy that has eluded generations of players and supporters. This is a club that has reached only one previous final in the competition, losing to Barcelona in 2006, and Saturday offers another chance to move past that night.
Ødegaard said the route to this moment began long before Budapest, back when he was playing as a child with friends on a small pitch beside his house in Norway. “I’ve been dreaming about winning these trophies, since I grew up playing football as a kid with my friends, in the little pitch next to my house in Norway,” he said. “It’s something special that we can achieve that has not been done before.”
The timing gives the final an edge Arsenal have not often carried into this stage of Europe’s top competition. The club arrive as Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years, and Ødegaard said that success has added to the team’s ambition rather than easing it. “It would mean a lot to everyone, to our supporters, and we’re ready to do it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the game.”
Bukayo Saka, who joined Ødegaard at the pre-match press conference, struck the same note. He said the players know the club’s history and are determined to write a new chapter in it. “We know the history of the club and we know that tomorrow we can write history as players winning it for the first time,” he said, adding that the chance to lift the trophy for Arsenal had made the final feel real after years of work.
Now the rest comes down to one night in Budapest. Arsenal have already changed the tone around the club with their league title, but beating PSG would take them into a different place altogether, one the badge has never reached before.
