It is the highlight of Arjen Robben’s career: the 2013 Champions League final at Wembley. Ten years ago, he secured himself a prominent place in the history books of Bayern Munich forever.
The moment that always gives Robben goosebumps, no matter how many times he sees it
After all, on May 25, 2013, it was Robben who decided the final against Borussia Dortmund one minute before the end of regular playing time. And when looking back at it, the former international still gets goosebumps: “Even now that I’ve seen it twenty or thirty times.”
The winning goal in the 2013 Champions League final took a big burden off Robben’s shoulders. Until then, fate had not been kind to him in finals. A year earlier, he had missed a penalty in extra time in the CL final against Chelsea in his own stadium. And in 2010 he even lost two finals in a short time: with Bayern (CL, against Inter) and the Dutch national team.
Where Robben did not get the ball past Iker Casillas during the lost World Cup final, he succeeded three years later against Dortmund. With a clever foot movement, he misled goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. Screaming with joy, Robben ran away. “There was so much going through my mind at that moment,” he previously told the club channel. “I think I even said Oh, my god. I realized it was over.”
Mr. Wembley
Robben thus became the man who gave Bayern European honors twelve years after winning the first Champions League. However, without Franck Ribéry’s smart chopping ball, he would never have had that chance for eternal fame. He realizes all too well, “We also owe a lot to Franck. Of course I scored the goal in the end. But few players are so intelligent that they pass the ball like that.”
Yet there is only one man who went down in history as Mr. Wembley: Robben. How much his Champions League winning goal means to Bayern fans became clear when 44 percent of fans voted for Robben’s goal in the election of the most emotional moment in club history. The former international is apparently not the only one who still gets goosebumps from his moment at Wembley.
