West Ham United are in a very exclusive band of six European elite clubs including Bayern Munich and two Italian giants.
David Moyes has transformed West Ham into a genuine European outfit over the last two years.
And the Hammers were left gutted not to have made the final of the Europa League last season, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals.
West Ham’s performances have dipped this term with the club struggling down at the wrong end of the table.
But fans and Moyes will be hoping that it is just teething problems after such a big turnover on the playing staff in the summer.
West Ham have not won a major trophy since 1980.
And the club and its fans are rightly proud of the huge influence West Ham had on England winning their only ever World Cup back in 1966.
The legacy of West Ham’s holy trinity Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters will burn bright for another three and a half years at least.
Hammers goalscoring great Hurst saw his record of being the only player to have ever scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final matched by Kylian Mbappe when France lost to Argentina at the weekend.
Although as pointed out by Hammers News, Hurst’s 1966 final hat-trick remains very much undefeated.
Hurst’s West Ham teammate Peters got the other goal in that 4-2 win over West Germany as captain Moore famously lifted the Jules Rimet at Wembley.
Hammers fans may not have too much to shout about at the moment.
But West Ham are in a very exclusive band of six European elite clubs including Bayern Munich and two Italian giants.
That’s when it comes to the most World Cup final goals by club.
Serie A giants Inter Milan and Juventus, Brazilian side Santos, PSG and German superpower Bayern all have something in common with West Ham on that front.
Inter lead the way with eight World Cup final goals scored by their players over the years and Juventus have seven. The graphic below misses out the fact PSG now have five following Mbappe’s hat-trick and the two goals from Lionel Messi in Sunday’s final. That is the same number as Santos.
West Ham and Bayern are then tied with four each – those being the Hurst hat-trick and that strike from Peters.
Yet another reason to be a proud Hammer.
Let’s hope we can make more history in the months and years to come.