Who was the first American champion of the Champions League?

This Saturday, May 29, in the Portuguese city of Lisbon, Manchester City and Chelsea will meet in the UEFA Champions League Grand Final, a definition where an American will be crowned European champion: goalkeeper Zach Steffen or striker Christian Pulisic. 

However, whoever wins it will not be the first American Union footballer to win the maximum trophy at the club level, because to find a precedent we have to look in the history books, and specifically go into the nineties.

This, because before the Steffen or Pulisic, the first American to win the Champions League is a forward, of Macedonian origin and who made his career in England, Germany, Portugal and then returned to the United States where he would finish his career.

To find this footballer we have to go back to the 1996-1997 season, where the champion was German Borussia Dortmund, who stayed with La Orejona by beating Juventus 3-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich.

It should be noted that he was not present in this definition. In fact, he only played two games in that campaign, both against Atlético Madrid, for Group B of the Champions League, being on court for 27 minutes.

Who was the first American champion of the Champions League?

The American player is forward Jovan Kirovski, of Macedonian origin and who came to Dortmund in 1996, playing for this team until 2000, where he scored a goal in 20 games played.