Credit: Imago

Daniel Lewis

Thu 21 May 2026 6:40, UK Updated Thu 21 May 2026 6:55, UK

Aston Villa captain John McGinn was singled out by Jack Grealish, who took immense pride in the club’s Europa League triumph.

The Villans ended their 30-year wait for a trophy on Wednesday evening – and a 44-year wait for a second major European trophy – as they saw off Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul

Unai Emery‘s men were too strong for their Bundesliga opponents at Tupras Stadium as goals from Youri Tielemans, Emi Buendia and Morgan Rogers proved the difference.

McGinn was also superb as he skippered the side to silverware and instantly wrote his name into the West Midlands club’s folklore.

Many current and former Villa players have reacted to the win over Freiburg, with one-time fan favourite Grealish among them.

Jack Grealish sends message to Aston Villa fans

McGinn played 12 times in Villa’s successful European campaign, starting eight of those, and more than played his part in this triumph.

The Scotland international averaged an hour per game across those fixtures and scored five times, as well as assisting a couple more.

Remarkably, those five goals came from an expected goals (xG) value of 1.56, meaning he scored far more goals than expected based on the quality of the chances.

In Villa’s win over Freiburg in the final itself, McGinn was Villa’s fourth-highest rated player by Sofascore with 7.6, behind only Rogers (7.9), Buendia (8.3) and Tielemans (8.4).

Grealish, who played with McGinn during his time at Villa Park, showed pride in his former teammate’s achievement as he took to Instagram to post: “McGinniesta.”

That comment, which is a pun on legendary midfielder Andres Iniesta’s name, was accompanied with six love hearts and a face holding back tears emoji.

Everton loanee Grealish added in a separate story: “Congrats to the whole of Aston Villa. Absolutely incredible!

“Especially the people that have been there since the start. Enjoy, everyone. Up the Villa!”

Grealish spent nearly two decades on Villa’s books and made over 200 senior appearances prior to joining Manchester City in 2021.

John McGinn does something not achieved since Graeme Souness

McGinn registered the joint-most tackles (two), won the joint-most ground duels (five) and the second-most key passes (three) on the night in Istanbul.

While not the standout performer, the 31-year-old was his usual superb self and will go down as one of the poster boys of this remarkable success.

And in going all the way, McGinn became the first Scotsman to captain a side in a major European final since Barry Ferguson for Rangers against Zenit in the 2008 UEFA Cup.

He is the first Scottish captain to be on the winning side since Graeme Souness for Liverpool against Roma in the 1984 European Cup final.

That is quite the company for McGinn, who has rightly been given his flowers and will hopefully create more memories for a lifetime at Villa before calling it a day.