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Four days after presenting the FA Cup trophy at Wembley, Prince William was back in the stands on Wednesday night, this time not as a royal official but as a devoted fan, watching Aston Villa dismantle Freiburg 3-0 to win the Europa League at Vodafone Park.
The Prince of Wales, 43, flew to Istanbul to witness a moment of history he missed by the narrowest of margins. Villa's 1982 European Cup triumph over Bayern Munich in Rotterdam came less than a month before his birth. On Wednesday night, seated among tens of thousands of claret-and-blue supporters, he watched the club claim its first European trophy since.
William's attachment to Aston Villa is long-standing and, by royal standards, unusually expressive. He has said publicly that he chose Villa as a schoolboy precisely because he wanted to avoid following the fashionable clubs his peers supported, seeking instead a team that could deliver what he called more "emotional rollercoaster moments." That gamble, he once admitted with characteristic self-deprecation, "was a bad idea."
His commitment to following the club has intensified in recent seasons, tracking Villa's rise under Unai Emery to Champions League regulars and now European champions. Earlier this season, he was photographed leaping from his seat at Villa Park as the team beat RB Salzburg 3-2 in the Europa League group phase.
In January, he travelled to Paris with his son Prince George for the Champions League quarterfinal against Paris Saint-Germain, describing the occasion as "a big deal" to bring his eldest child to a major European night.
He was also in the stands at Villa Park on May 7 when Villa hammered Nottingham Forest 4-0 to complete a 4-1 aggregate semifinal win and book their place in Istanbul.
William's Istanbul trip came just four days after he fulfilled his duties as President and Patron of the Football Association at Wembley, where he presented the FA Cup trophy to Manchester City following their win over Chelsea. On that occasion his emotions were well contained; Villa had been knocked out of the competition by Newcastle in the fourth round.
Wednesday was a different matter entirely. Broadcast coverage showed him filming the pre-match light show on his phone at Besiktas Park, a moment that, as one commentary team noted, radiated the energy of an overwhelmed parent at a school play rather than a future king. The contrast with his composed Wembley appearance four days earlier was stark.
His attendance had been revealed the day before the final in an unlikely setting. Comedian Matt Lucas, receiving an OBE for services to drama at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, disclosed that he had asked William whether he could make it to Istanbul.
"I asked him about football and whether he would be able to get to the cup final tomorrow that Aston Villa are playing in, and he said he can," Lucas told reporters afterward.
Ahead of the final, Villa centre-back Ezri Konsa offered a candid account of what William's support means to the squad. The defender described the prince as a consistent presence around the dressing room throughout his time at the club, someone who visits the changing room before matches and greets every player by name. "Ever since I joined, he has shown unreal support, coming into the changing room and showing us the utmost respect," Konsa said.
Konsa also revealed that William had once singled him out as a "Rolls-Royce," a compliment the defender admitted stayed with him. "That got stuck in my head and it's nice," he said. He added that the weight of the royal presence only fully registers after the final whistle: "Sometimes you get caught up in the moment, and you go home and think, 'flipping hell, I just shook his hand, and he knows my name and everything.'"
Emery, speaking after a Champions League win over Bayern Munich earlier in the campaign, told broadcasters that he had encouraged William to savour the journey the club was on, not just the destination. It was advice, on Wednesday night, that both of them could finally act on together.
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