Real Madrid 2000

Coach: Vicente del Bosque

Real Madrid won their eighth European Cup in 2000, beating fellow Spaniards Valencia 3-0 in an all-Spanish final in Paris, with a Fernando Morientes header and two second-half goals from Raúl and Steve McManaman — the Englishman scoring an especially spectacular first-time volley — completing a comfortable victory that confirmed Madrid's return to the very top of European football after a barren stretch through the 1980s and much of the 1990s. Managed by Vicente del Bosque, who had taken over only partway through the season, the squad blended homegrown talent in Raúl, already established as one of the finest strikers of his generation, with a settled defensive unit that had grown together over several seasons. This triumph came just two years after Madrid's 1998 European Cup win had itself ended a 32-year wait for the club's seventh title, meaning the club had now won two of the previous three European Cups after decades of relative continental frustration. It marked the beginning of what would become the Galácticos era under club president Florentino Pérez, whose policy of signing a global superstar every summer would define Real Madrid's identity for the following several years.