David Alaba won the Champions League twice at Bayern and twice at Real Madrid
No one else has managed it: David Alaba lifted the Champions League twice with Bayern Munich, in 2013 and 2020, then twice more with Real Madrid, in 2022 and 2024. The Vienna-born defender also captains Austria and has been voted his country's footballer of the year ten times.
Born in Vienna on 24 June 1992 to a Nigerian father, a Yoruba prince from Ogere who works as a rapper and DJ, and a Filipina mother who came to Austria to work as a nurse, Alaba started at SV Aspern and entered Austria Wien's youth setup at ten. He moved to Bayern Munich in 2008. On his first-team debut in February 2010 he set up a Franck Ribéry goal with his second touch, becoming Bayern's youngest competitive player at 17 years, 7 months and 8 days. He also speaks Bosnian, picked up from childhood friends.
After a loan at Hoffenheim he became a fixture at left-back, collecting ten Bundesliga titles and 27 honours in all across more than 400 appearances. A booking in the 2012 semi-final ruled him out of that year's final, but he played every minute of the 2013 victory over Dortmund, the peak of a treble season. In 2019-20 an injury crisis pushed him into central defence, and he anchored the back line in the 1-0 final win over Paris Saint-Germain. He called a proposed swap for Leroy Sané a slap in the face and left in 2021.
At Real Madrid he inherited Sergio Ramos's number 4 shirt and, in his first El Clásico, became only the second Austrian to score in the fixture, after Hans Krankl in 1979. A torn cruciate ligament in December 2023 sidelined him for about 13 months. He left Madrid in 2026 and joined Udinese that September as a free agent.
For Austria he debuted at 17 in 2009 and has passed 110 caps. He captained the side at Euro 2020, when it reached a knockout round for the first time, was named non-playing captain for Euro 2024 while injured, and went to the 2026 World Cup, Austria's first appearance at the finals since 1998.
Source: David Alaba
