How Tottenham players celebrated after Europa League final win

Evening Standard

·22 Mei 2025

How Tottenham players celebrated after Europa League final win

Spurs stars revelled in their first major trophy success for 17 years as Manchester United beaten in Bilbao

Tottenham supporters partied long into the night after the club won its first trophy for 17 years, and the players were no different.

Brennan Johnson’s scruffy first-half goal was the difference at Bilbao’s Estadio de San Mames as Spurs beat Manchester United for the fourth time this season to win the Europa League.

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The outpouring of joy from fans spoke of the relief at having finally ended the barren spell without silverware. For the players, the sound of referee Felix Zwayer blowing the final whistle signalled the start of wild celebrations for Ange Postecoglou and his men.

Players embraced each other on the pitch, with many running off to tie their respective national flags around their bodies, including match-winner Johnson wearing a Welsh flag, Yves Bissouma a Mali flag, and man-of-the-match Cristian Romero with the flag of Argentina.

Micky van de Ven made a beeline straight for the crowd, where he entered the stands to visit family and speak with Spurs supporters.

Postecoglou, whose Tottenham future beyond the end of this season is in doubt, was met on the pitch by his two young sons and his wife, the four of them hugging near the tunnel and wearing broad smiles after Spurs won the competition’s showpiece in Spain.

Later, Postecoglou, the former Celtic manager, could be seen embracing ex-Rangers boss Ally McCoist, who was working as a co-commentator for TNT Sports.

In his interview with the same broadcaster, James Maddison was asked by pundit Rio Ferdinand how the Spurs players planned to celebrate on their historic night. “With a lot of beer,” came Maddison’s honest response.

Maddison had not been able to play in the final due to a knee injury but was in attendance wearing a suit. He revealed that a UEFA official had told him that he had to change into his kit to receive his winners’ medal and so joked on air that he was ripping off John Terry, whose decision to change into his full kit to celebrate Chelsea winning the 2012 Champions League final despite not having been able to play was a source of mick-taking on social media from rival fans.

Maddison made fun of Tottenham’s reputation as a club who get close but never over the line, mischievously captioning an Instagram post of him lifting the Europa League trophy with the words: ‘F****n Spursy’.

On the team coach, as it made its way back to their hotel, Maddison posted a video of him sitting next to Johnson while chanting: “Johnson again, Johnson again, Johnson again ole ole”, after the Welshman scored Tottenham’s winner.

Both players had a beer in hand, Johnson wearing some rather questionable sunglasses, and Bissouma and Richarlison could also be spotted, topless, in the background, sitting on a table while dancing to music.

A photo on Rodrigo Bentancur’s Instagram account showed the Uruguayan and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario both wearing their winners’ medals and sat in the lobby of their hotel in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Djed Spence posted on Instagram with the caption: ‘EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSSSS BABYYY’. Perhaps the most humorous clip came from Tottenham’s official social media accounts.

With pizza boxes, bananas, beer bottles and confetti strewn around the dressing room, the DJ had clearly chosen to hone in on the fact that Tottenham’s Europa League triumph gets them into the Champions League next season.

As the orchestral theme music for the Champions League played out, the camera panned to seven Spurs players lined up as though they were preparing for kick-off in Europe’s premier competition.

Archie Gray could be seen licking his lips in pretend anticipation for the supposed match ahead, while Mikey Moore pointed his index fingers up to the sky as if in prayer before a big game.

Multiple Spurs players shared a Sky Sports post which centred on Postecoglou’s infamous quote that he always wins a trophy in his second season.

Maddison went further, writing at 1:35am local time on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “I always win things in my second season. Bruhhhhhhhh”, complete with three cry-laughing emojis.

One assumes the Spurs players got very little sleep on Wednesday night after finally securing silverware for the club for the first time since Juande Ramos’s side won the 2008 League Cup.