John McGinn bidding for 25-year Scottish first as Aston Villa captain prepares for 'proudest moment'
World Cup thoughts can wait as McGinn leads team out in European final
John McGinn can be forgiven for not quite turning his attention to World Cup matters just yet.
The Aston Villa captain was one of the star names included in Steve Clarke's 26-man squad for this summer's tournament on Tuesday, but his focus will have been understandably elsewhere.
That's because the 31-year-old is preparing to lead Villa out in the Europa League final on Wednesday night at the Besiktas Stadium in Istanbul against German Bundesliga side Freiburg as the Birmingham club attempts to win a first trophy in 30 years.
McGinn has been with Villa since 2018, helping them get promoted from the Championship and now onto one of the biggest stages in Europe. He has also played a key part this season having scored 10 goals across all competitions including a semi-final double against Nottingham Forest.
The former Hibs and St Mirren midfielder is bidding to become the first Scot to get his hands on the Europa League trophy since Gary McAllister won it with Liverpool when the competition was still known as the UEFA Cup back in 2001.
Asked whether leading Villa out at a European final will be proudest moment of his career, McGinn replied: “I would say so, yeah. It has been a brilliant journey, full of ups and downs, close moments, very close to going back to the Championship.
"It fills me with pride as to where the club is now and it also fills me with pride as to where this club could go, like the manager has touched upon, this isn’t something we want to come here, celebrate and have a fanfare, we want to be focused on this match.
"We know how difficult it is to get to a final. But if you ask me on a personal level, throughout the years I have been here, definitely this is the proudest moment as captain here.”
Villa manager Unai Emery has been hailed as a specialist in the Europa League after winning it three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal but says past glories will count for nothing.
“I am not a king in this competition," he said. "I am now with Aston Villa in a new chapter and everything I did is done. It’s there in that moment, but with it I am not winning tomorrow.
“I need to win tomorrow with the players we have now, with Aston Villa now, with the opponent we face tomorrow. So it’s a new way, a new moment and hopefully a new era.
“I don’t want to speak a lot about the thing we did before.
“Now, this year, and the matches we played before in the Conference League or in the Champions League, and they are showing the capacity to play at a high level.”
Emery has transformed Villa since he replaced Steven Gerrard in November 2022, taking them from battling relegation to fighting for titles.
His side now have a chance to cap a memorable season which has brought Champions League qualification with the club’s first major trophy since the 1996 League Cup and first continental crown since their European Cup triumph in 1982.
Emery knows his players will feel pressure but wants them to embrace the feeling of playing in high-profile matches like the one on Wednesday night.
He added: “This is a process. A process (for) how we could achieve, building the team and our structure.
“Now it’s a new experience we will have tomorrow. It’s very important how we manage our emotions and we’ve done it for a lot of matches and there are a lot of emotions.
“The pressure is here as well, but we must try to understand the pressure like something positive, not negative. And the pressure is when you are playing for something important. And of course we have experience here.”
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