May 20 (Reuters) - Unai Emery not only cemented his status as undisputed king of the Europa League with Wednesday's astonishing fifth win as a manager - but also sealed Aston Villa's resurgence as a major force in football.
The 54-year-old Spaniard joined Villa in late 2022, with the famous old Midlands club hovering perilously close to the Premier League relegation zone and fans still harking back to past glories of the 1980s and 90s.
Emery has since hauled Villa to the upper echelons of the Premier League, taken them into the Champions League - and now won them their first trophy in 30 years.
The nature of the 3-0 thrashing of Freiburg in the Europa League final in Turkey demonstrated all that is best about Emery's Villa: tactical nous, defensive resilience and oodles of skill and finishing power up front.
"To perform like that was unbelievable. We really controlled the game and we punished them in the end," said Villa striker Ollie Watkins, as his team were serenaded by hordes of delirious supporters who had travelled from Birmingham to Istanbul.
"Unbelievable experience. It's all you dream of," he told TNT.
'WE'LL GO DOWN IN HISTORY'
Fellow forward Morgan Rogers paid tribute to the travelling supporters, including Villa's most famous fan Prince William who celebrated the victory ecstatically.
"We've worked so hard for this. We knew we had one more game to give it our all, and we all delivered and we came through," Rogers said. "Great moment for the fans, great moment for the club, we'll go down in history."
Dubbed "Mr Europa League" and "King of the Europa League" by media and fans, Emery has now won Europe's second most prestigious club competition five times.
Intriguingly, his winning clubs all include the letters "villa": Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016), Villarreal (2021) and now Aston Villa.
It was the English club's first trophy since the English League Cup in 1996 and their first triumph in Europe since the 1982 European Cup.
Midfielder Youri Tielemans said it was an incredible finale to a season that started with a rough patch in the Premier League.
"It's amazing, it's been a season with a lot of ups and downs. We started so so bad, our standards were very very poor but the way we turned things around was great. Credit to the players, credit to the staff, we just kept working, kept believing, and we got the win in the end, Champions League next season and a trophy," he said.
"I feel amazing. My voice will be gone but it's all good. We put in a shift, top performance, we had a great season, and to top it off with this, it's amazing."
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Ed Osmond)
