People are only just realising the lyrics to the Champions League theme tune

Daily Mirror

31-05-2025

PSG and Inter Milan will contest the 2025 Champions League final on Saturday night, and the competition's iconic theme tune will once again take centre stage before the match
No Champions League match would be complete without a spine-tingling rendition of the competition's anthem, and this year's final will be no different. Out of the 36 teams that began the latest renewal of the tournament, only two remain.
This campaign was the first to incorporate a new league phase system. Instead of the traditional four-team groups, each side was pitted against eight different opponents. After this stage was completed, Arne Slot and Liverpool topped the table, losing just a single match.
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Mikel Arteta's Arsenal progressed to the round of 16 in third, as would Aston Villa in eighth. An out-of-sorts Manchester City, however, needed an extra play-off tie before they'd hopefully join the top eight, but they came unstuck at the hands of Real Madrid.
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Paris Saint-Germain then sent Liverpool packing before besting Unai Emery's men in the quarter-final stage. The Gunners would face them in the final four, having put Los Blancos out, though they, too, became victims of Les Parisiens' lightning forward line.
With PSG in the final, the other side of the bracket saw Inter progress, as they beat Feyenoord, Bayern Munich and Barcelona to reach the showpiece finale. The two giants will soon face off, with the competition's anthem echoing around the stadium just before kick-off.
But, have you ever wondered what the actual lyrics are to one of sport's most renowned songs? Mirror Football takes a look at the song itself, which is often sung – at least, in part – by the players lining up on the pitch before the game.
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The lyrics are as follows, sung in UEFA's three official languages, English, French and German:
"Ce sont les meilleures équipes [They are the best teams]. Es sind die allerbesten Mannschaften [They are the best teams]. The main event. Die Meister [The masters]. Die Besten [The best]. Les grandes équipes [The great teams]. The champions!
"Une grande réunion [A big meeting]. Eine grosse sportliche Veranstaltung [A great sporting event]. The main event. Die Meister. Die Besten. Les grandes équipes. The champions!
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"Ils sont les meilleurs [They are the best]. Sie sind die Besten [They are the best]. These are the champions. Die Meister. Die Besten. Les grandes équipes. The champions!"
The anthem was composed by Tony Britten, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, in 1991. It is set in the style of 18th-century musician George Frederic Handel and adapted from his 'Zadok the Priest.' It was recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, based in London, in 1992 and sung by the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields Chorus.
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The full-length anthem is roughly three minutes long, but the orchestral version is played before matches. It has become synonymous with a big European night, and was commissioned as part of a rebrand that wished to galvanise the newly formed Champions League.
"It was a long time ago, and to be honest, it was just another job," Britten told the BBC in 2020, recalling the moment he was asked to create the now iconic anthem. "The old European Cup had become a very tired competition, and to UEFA's credit, they wanted to elevate the sport around the time when there was a lot of hooliganism right across Europe.
"UEFA wanted this competition to be about the best of football rather than the worst, and said they must have an anthem. I remember asking: 'Where are the words?' And they said they didn't know, but that they wanted something in UEFA's three official languages.
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"So, I came up with a set of superlatives. 'The greatest', 'the best', 'the masters', 'the main event', 'the champions' and translated between those languages. It all came together in a matter of weeks, and the actual composing process was just a matter of days.
"Although it was designed to be an important competition, there were only eight teams and no one thought it was going to be the mega competition that it has become now."