Champions League 2013: Players Who Helped Careers with Strong Showings

Now that the Champions League final is over, it’s time to look at several players whose performances in the tournament helped their careers.

Sure, there were a number of players who were disappointed with how the tournament went, but a few guys came out of the Champions League with plenty to be happy about.

Let’s go ahead and take a look at the players who helped themselves the most.

Robert Lewandowski

Before the Champions League, Lewandowski was considered one of the best strikers in the world.  Still, the tournament was the perfect stage for the striker to shine, and now even the casual fan knows how good this guy is.

Lewandowski scored 10 goals, finishing second behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who had 12 goals.  He scored more goals than both Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller, proving how talented he really is.

The semifinal match against Real Madrid really put him on the map.  

He scored all four goals for Dortmund, the first player in the history of the Champions League to do so in a semifinal match.

Even though his team wasn’t able to pull out the win in the finals, Lewandowski has now become one of the brightest soccer stars in the world.

Arjen Robben

As a midfielder, Robben had a solid performance throughout the entire tournament. 

However, nothing will help his career more than the late-match heroics that ensued in the Champions League final.

With the match tied 1-1, Robben was the hero for Bayern Munich when in the 89th minute he was able to score the game-winning goal to give Bayern the title.

Robben finished the tournament with four goals and two assists, but nothing will compare to his go-ahead goal.  He will be remembered in Germany for quite some time after his last-minute heroics.

Manuel Neuer

Both goalies in the final match played fantastic, but Neuer made a bigger name for himself with the championship victory.

In the UCL final, Neuer had six saves while allowing only one goal on the night.  Those six saves were the most he had in a league or UCL game all season.

He finished with 10 wins and only 11 allowed goals in the 13 games played.  His fantastic goalkeeping was one of the big reasons why Bayern were able to do so well in the tournament.

Being the goalkeeper on the winning team in the UCL will make you popular enough, but the dominance by Neuer throughout the entire tournament will really help his career.