Sevilla stars worth their weight in...beer
Sevilla beat Benfica 4-2 on penalties in a dramatic final in Turin, the La Liga side’s third success in the competition in the last decade.
This season’s squad were present at the Fundacion Cruzcampo in Sevilla’s city centre, where each individual was weighed then presented with the relevant number of crates of glass bottles.
The players between them took home more than 1,600 litres of beer. Midfielder Vicente Iborra, 6ft 2ins and the heaviest member of the squad, collected a mountain of crates containing 90 litres of the locally-popular beverage. Club president Jose Castro also joined in the fun, while right-back Coke tried to game the system by grabbing a crate of bottles as he stepped up.
Club chief Castro said he hoped the team would be back again repeating the event in 12 months’ time, as it would mean they had again lifted a trophy on the pitch.
“It is always a pleasure to receive a prize like this for having been a champion,” he said. “I hope we will be back again many years, because that will mean we are continuing to achieve great things.”
Some of last season’s key players, including Ivan Rakitic, Alberto Moreno and Fernando Fazio, missed out on the event, having joined Barcelona, Liverpool and Tottenham respectively during the summer transfer window.
By contrast new arrivals — including loan signing from Liverpool Iago Aspas — had the good fortune to benefit from their team-mates’ achievement last season.
