The Prince of Wales was at the forefront of jubilant celebrations as Aston Villa’s party spilt over into the early hours following their Europa League triumph.
Prince William was in Istanbul on Wednesday night to see the club end their 30-year trophy drought and was pictured wiping away tears of joy.
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Villa’s royal connection dates back more than 100 years to King George VI, the great grandfather of William.
The heir to the throne was at the Istanbul Hilton Bosphorus with Villa’s players to celebrate the momentous achievement, with the bash still in full swing at 5am. Maja Nilsson Lindelof, wife of Villa player Victor Lindelof, posted a picture on Instagram with the Prince as well the brothers of the Swedish international who joined her at the final.
Prince William addressed the players before and after the match in the dressing room on a night when Villa swept Freiburg aside to claim their first major trophy since the 1996 League Cup.
But the Prince is not Villa’s first royal connection, as the first member of the Royal family to visit the club was George VI in 1924 when he opened the club’s old Trinity Road Stand.
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The stand has since been refurbished and is where Prince William watches games from when he attends Villa Park.
King George VI was the Duke of York when he opened the stand as part of Villa’s golden jubilee on January 26, 1924. According to club historians, 56,000 people attended his visit which coincided with a game against Bolton Wanderers.
According to the club’s official website, the future king told Fred Rinder, the then-Villa chairman, that he had no idea “a ground so finely equipped in every way – and devoted to football – existed”. Villa won the game 1-0.
King George VI was the Duke of York when he opened the Trinity Road Stand as part of Aston Villa’s golden jubilee in 1924 – Shutterstock
Prince William has previously revealed that he chose to support Villa because he “wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional roller-coaster moments”.
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Villa provided William with his best moment of his time as a supporter so far by beating Freiburg thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans, Emi Buendía and Morgan Rogers.
Having given his royal seal of approval inside the Tupras Stadium by wiping away tears of joy and wildly celebrating each goal, Prince William is believed to have joined the club’s after-party at the team hotel.
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John McGinn had joked that Prince William could “get his credit card out” and “have a few drinks with us” after Villa’s win and it seems the future King took the Villa captain up on his offer.
Videos have also emerged online of Prince William singing along to the Queen hit song We Are The Champions and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline at the end of the final.
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Prince William further confirmed his Villa fandom in Istanbul by giving one of the club’s biggest unofficial supporters’ podcasts Claret & Blue an impromptu interview in which he revealed that he is an avid listener. He has previously confirmed he has set up “burner” social media accounts to keep up with club gossip on online forums and once surprised fellow supporters by joining them in a Birmingham branch of Wetherspoons for a pint.
Having posted a good luck message on the official X account of the Prince and Princess of Wales ahead of kick-off, William reacted to Villa’s victory with a fresh post:
McGinn became the first Villa captain to lift a European trophy since Dennis Mortimer in 1982 and said: “Hopefully Prince William is paying for the free bar. He’s a classy guy. He was in the dressing room before the game. He’s a massive Villa fan, he was never going to miss it.
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“He’s just a normal guy, it’s great to have his support. Hopefully, he can have a couple of drinks with us and maybe get his credit card out.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
