Football : Paul Lambert and the 1997 Champions League Final - Borussia Dortmund Vs Juventus

The School of Football looks back on one Britain’s more surprising football exports.

Paul Lambert was the first ever British player to win the Champions League with a foreign club, doing so in 1997 for Borussia Dortmund.

On the 28th of May 1997 Paul Lambert was part of the only team in Borussia Dortmund’s history to win the Champions League.

BVB were massive underdogs as they took on the holders Juventus at the Olympiastadion in Munich.

Dortmund raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to a Karl Heinz Riedle double in the first half and despite Del Piero’s 65th minute strike, Dortmund managed to hold on and seal the trophy when Lars Ricken scored a magical 3rd in the 71st minute, with Dortmund going on to see the game out and win 3-1.

Lambert was a hard-working midfielder and in the final, he was assigned the thankless task of man marking Juventus star-man Zinedine Zidane.

Due to his tireless performance and his ability to negate the threat of Zizou, Lambert is still heralded as somewhat of a legend amongst Dortmund fans.

Paul Lambert’s Career

Lambert started his career with St Mirren in 1986 and would play for the club until 1993 making over 230 appearances for them and winning a Scottish Cup with The Buddies in the 1986-87 season as a 17-year-old.

In September 1993 Lambert moved to Motherwell for £250,000 where he played over 100 times across 3 seasons before moving to Dortmund in 1996.

Lambert spent just 2 seasons with the iconic German side playing 64 times and scoring 2 goals in all competitions.

Lambert signed for Celtic in 1997 for £2 million and would play 273 times for them scoring 19 times.

In his 8 years at Celtic Lambert added 4 SPL titles, 2 Scottish Cups and 2 Scottish League Cups to his honours list, as well as a runners-up medal in the 2003 UEFA Cup Final when he captained the side to a 3-2 loss to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

Lambert received personal accolades at Celtic Park too as he was awarded the SFWA Footballer of the Year in 2002.

Lambert finished his career at Livingston before going on to become a manager.