Unai Emery’s fifth Europa League title and Pau Torres’ unique achievement have written two remarkable records into European football history simultaneously.
- Pau Torres became only the third player ever to win two Europa Leagues under the same manager at different clubs
- Emery joins Mourinho, Ancelotti and Trapattoni as a five-time winner of a major European competition
- The Spanish manager has now won the Europa League with Sevilla, Villarreal and Aston Villa: all three containing the word “Villa”
- No manager in history has won a single European competition more times than Emery’s five Europa League titles
The third player in history to achieve a unique feat
Pau Torres’ name will forever be associated with two of the most significant nights in Unai Emery’s extraordinary managerial career.
The Spanish centre-back won the Europa League with Villarreal under Emery in 2021, a triumph that announced Emery’s return to the very top of European football after his Arsenal experience. Five years later, Torres lifted the same trophy again, this time in an Aston Villa shirt, with the same manager on the touchline.
Winning two Europa Leagues under the same manager at two different clubs places Torres in the most exclusive company in the competition’s history.
Only the third player ever to do so. His composure, technical excellence and leadership across both campaigns reflect a centre-back who consistently performs at the highest level when the stakes are greatest.
From Villarreal’s famous semi-final victory over Arsenal in 2021 to Villa’s stunning second-leg comeback against Nottingham Forest, Torres has been at the heart of both journeys.
Unai Emery alongside the greatest managers in history
Five Europa League titles. The number that places Unai Emery in the most elite managerial company European football has ever produced.
His achievement in Istanbul last night, completing a fifth triumph that began with Sevilla’s back-to-back-to-back victories between 2014 and 2016, now positions him level with Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho and Giovanni Trapattoni as a five-time winner of a major European competition.
Ancelotti achieved his five titles in the Champions League. Mourinho won five major European trophies across multiple competitions. Trapattoni accumulated seven European final appearances across his extraordinary career.
Emery’s five have all come in the same competition making him the most specialised and dominant force any single UEFA competition has ever witnessed from a managerial perspective. No one else has won the Europa League, or its UEFA Cup predecessor, more than four times. Emery has won it five.
His record in the competition is simply staggering. 115 games managed. 71 victories. 216 goals scored. The most wins, the most goals, and now the most titles in the history of the UEFA Cup and Europa League combined.
The “Villa” connection. Football’s most extraordinary coincidence
Hidden within the extraordinary statistics of Emery’s Europa League career is one of football’s most delightful and entirely unplanned coincidences. The three clubs with whom he has won the competition all contain the word “Villa” in their name.
- Sevilla — three consecutive titles between 2014 and 2016.
- Villarreal — a stunning triumph in 2021.
- Aston Villa — history made in Istanbul in 2026.
- Three clubs. Three different countries. Three different contexts.
One word connecting all of them. One manager linking all of them. Emery has literally won the Europa League with three “Villa” clubs: a coincidence so perfect that it feels entirely constructed by the football gods specifically for this moment.
Torres and Emery: a partnership written in european history
The relationship between Torres and Emery across two different clubs and two different Europa League triumphs is one of the most compelling manager-player stories in the competition’s history. Emery trusted Torres at Villarreal. He brought him to Villa Park. He built a defensive structure around him. And Torres has delivered on the biggest stages, twice, under the same man’s guidance.
| Emery’s Europa League Wins | Club | Year |
|---|---|---|
| First | Sevilla | 2013-14 |
| Second | Sevilla | 2014-15 |
| Third | Sevilla | 2015-16 |
| Fourth | Villarreal | 2020-21 |
| Fifth | Aston Villa | 2025-26 |
ReadAstonVilla Verdict
The “Villa” connection is the kind of detail that makes football endlessly magical: three clubs, one word, five titles, one extraordinary manager.
Torres’ unique historical achievement reflects a player of outstanding quality and a manager who inspires the same level of performance across different cultures, different squads and different decades. Emery. Torres. Villa. The names are written in European football history forever.
