Luis Enrique: "We have closed out an historic year"

FC Barcelona are the new UEFA Champions League holders. The Catalans beat Juventus 3-1 in Berlin, thereby clinching their fifth such title in the competition. To add to this success, los azulgrana also ran out Liga BBVA and Copa del Rey winners this season. The Barcelona FC boss, Luis Enrique Martínez, declared that this draws the curtain on "an historic year". "It was a tough season and I’m grateful to everyone who has shown their faith in me", he confessed. He went on to say that he has a "special" group of players, calling them "champions, warriors" and stating that "they know how to entertain the fans". "I never imagined what it would be like to win all the titles, but we fought from the get go to do our best", he revealed.

On the other hand, the Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, made no effort to hide his delight: "I’m very happy". "Juventus are a great side and they showed that again today", added Bartomeu, who regards the end of the season performances as "magnificent". "Finishing in this fashion caps off a perfect season".

The man who opened up the scoring, Ivan Rakitić, said that his goal in Berlin is without doubt "the most important" of his career. "Emotions take over on nights like this", he added. One of the Catalans’ other goalscorers in the final, Luis Suárez, summed up the feat as "a one off". "You have to know how to suffer in order to win tournaments like this. They came at us stronger after getting the equaliser, but we have players who made the difference", he continued.

UEFA's man of the match, Andrés Iniesta, was lost for words as he expressed his emotions: "It's amazing to win everything in a season again. Words cannot express how happy we are". For the man from Castille La Mancha, it is a day to be "very proud" of Barcelona and he described Xavi's goodbye as "perfect".

Xavi himself said he "could not have asked for more. We deserved it," he said. "We had to suffer a lot, and mentally it took a lot to bounce back from the equaliser", he admitted before adding that to finish "this way" is "unbeatable". "I'm feeling nostalgic knowing I'll never play for this side again", he concluded.