2023-06-12 20:06:04
Football
Manchester City’s glorious parade in pictures
Two days after winning their first Champions League and signing a resounding hat-trick, the Citizens marched through the streets and crowds of Manchester.
Updated
Confetti and walkabout: Manchester City paraded through the streets of the city on Monday.
AFP
Pep Guardiola, in an already cult image, smoking a cigar.
AFP
The Champions League trophy in the arms of Erling Haaland. The striker and his teammates have lifted three cups this season, adding the Championship and the FA Cup.
AFP
The Citizens received congratulations from Manchester City Council official Bev Craig. “Winning the treble, capped by a historic first Champions League triumph, is an incredible achievement. On behalf of the city, we extend our congratulations to the club and its supporters.”
AFP
One real trophy, thousands of copies.
AFP
Despite typically Mancunian precipitation, the popular joy around the hat-trick carried out by Manchester City was not blunted, during the parade in the city which was held on Monday.
Champion of England on May 20, winner of the FA Cup on June 3, the Citizens added the first Champions League in their history on Saturday against Inter Milan (1-0), equaling the feat that only their neighbor in red, United, had succeeded in England so far, in 1999.
Returning Sunday morning by plane from Istanbul, most of the workforce had immediately taken another plane for an additional night of celebration in Ibiza. Despite sleep that we guess is rare for 48 hours and a postponement of the start of the festivities by 30 minutes due to a heavy downpour, Pep Guardiola and his players would not have missed this meeting with their fans. for nothing in the world.
“How times have changed,” exclaimed 27-year-old fan Sarah Morris, referring to all her years when the Citizens lived in the shadow of the Red Devils. It’s like a dream I could never have imagined,” she added. A dream made possible by the hundreds and hundreds of millions of euros poured in by the club’s Emirati owners since their arrival in 2008.
“We will never do better than that”
But with five titles in the last six seasons under Guardiola, City have put an iron fist on English football. “I’m only 21, but we’ll never do better than that. From now on, it can only get worse,” predicted Tom Kennedy, a fervent supporter as he walked to the stage where the players were about to arrive, wearing a t-shirt and hats. in the colors of the club.
Sometimes shirtless but always all smiles, the players, applauded by the crowd massed along the route, congratulated themselves by waddling to the music that accompanied the double-decker bus that dropped them off at Saint-Peter’s Square where thousands were waiting for them. of fans who had waited patiently in the rain.
Even Pep Guardiola, his jersey stuck to his body in the rain, indulged in haranguing the crowd with grand gestures, after having enjoyed a cigar all the same. Arrived on the scene, he had fun with the weather. “What a parade! What an afternoon! We needed the best parade, with this rain, otherwise it’s not Manchester. We didn’t want the sun, we wanted the rain. So she was perfect,” he joked.
The rain did not prevent either the final fireworks of a historic season but which will have to be forgotten in two months almost to the day, when the championship will resume.
(AFP)
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