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Top 100 momentsNo. 55

Soccer

The first European Cup

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Real Madrid lift a new trophy in Paris. Club soccer gets a continent-wide final, then a television product, then the Champions League.

A French newspaper idea becomes a knockout for champions. In 1956 Real Madrid beat Reims at the Parc des Princes. Di Stéfano is the engine. Madrid will win the first five. Europe learns to travel for club football.

The European Cup becomes the Champions League, a league inside a cup, a revenue engine that rearranges domestic calendars. Tuesday nights matter because 1956 invented a midweek cathedral.

International club soccer had been friendlies and myths. This is a trophy you can put in a cabinet and a date you can sell.