As is well known, nothing happened with Kylian Mbappé, but who knows, maybe at Real Madrid late at night you could already see the generation after next rehearsing the interaction.

In any case, the offspring from the Kroos and Modric houses not only looked lively, but also seemed to get along very well when the fathers meandered through the interview zone of the Stade de France shortly after two in the morning.

Christian Kamp

sports editor.

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It's a good family tradition for Toni Kroos, and later on in the album you'll be happy to see how the trophies keep getting bigger and bigger.

The fact that he did not give his fifth Champions League triumph a special place because it was won under special sporting circumstances also went well with the image of Kroos as a model father.

But because for the first time "my little one was there", as he said, "he has never won a Champions League trophy, now he has one too, now it's complete."

However, one could have come to a different impression beforehand.

For example, when you saw how after the final whistle Kroos still had the strength for a last attack, pulled colleague David Alaba to the ground and rolled around with him as if the French national stadium was just a big playground.

Or, quite differently, when Kroos was asked for an interview by German television shortly afterwards, listened to two questions from ZDF man Nils Kaben, and then first rounded them up and then left them alone because the undertone of the questions seemed too negative to him.

Kroos came across as a bit of a stubborn kid – or at least someone who just felt like they had achieved something pretty big and, again, didn't get the proper recognition for it.

After such a win, his fifth in the Champions League as I said, he "expected more positive questions," he said later.

"Lots of weird stuff"

Kroos, a key factor on the night with his resistance to pressure, wasn't the only Madrilenian to lose something after the 1-0 win over Liverpool.

Thibaut Courtois also expressed his displeasure.

The Belgian goalkeeper was deeply annoyed that an English magazine didn't list him among the top ten in his field, that he didn't get enough respect on the island at all, even though he had won the championship there twice, with Chelsea - and that "lots of funny stuff" came from England immediately before the final.

In this respect, he was allowed to leave Paris with the satisfaction of sneaking into Liverpool nightmares as a shadow man and growing a little bit there – until Mo Salah no longer saw a goal at all, only goalkeepers.

It was Courtois' first-half exploits against Sadio Mané and then a private duel with Salah after the break that ensured Vinicius Junior's 59th-minute goal was the only one of the evening.

The fact that strictly speaking it was the only shot on the Liverpool goal, apart from Karim Benzema's goal disallowed for offside shortly before the break, ruined the evening and mood for Jürgen Klopp (see text on the following page).

But it wasn't the only and not the most important reason that someone else told the big story of this finale.

A tale of power, magic and maybe metaphysics, whose threads Carlo Ancelotti had already laid in the days before and which he picked up again on the evening of his triumph.

From the fact that it was also a personal one, Ancelotti was the first coach ever to win the pot four times, so he didn't make a big deal.

Because for Ancelotti there is one thing that is much bigger: Real Madrid.

"With Real," he said, "it's easier to win the Champions League than with other teams." Because the history of the club plays along and gives the players strength and confidence: the spirit that comes from the shirt.

Real have been in the final eight times since the most important European competition has been known as the Champions League, and the name Real Madrid has been engraved on the trophy eight times.