When Did Aston Villa Last Win a Trophy? Villa Eye Europa League Glory Under Unai Emery

Aston Villa is ranked fifth in the all-time English top flight table since its creation in 1888, and is the seventh most successful club in English football by competitive honours. However excluding the infamous summer Intertoto Cup, Aston Villa have not won a trophy since the 1996 League Cup over 30 years ago.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000's, Villa regularly qualified for European football, but following a period of decline after the departure of Martin O'Neill the club suffered its only relegation from the Premier League in 2015–16. After three seasons in the EFL Championship and two ownership changes the club returned to the Premier League in 2019.

However that all seems set to change. In October 2022, ex Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard was sacked and replaced by four-time Europa League-winning Spanish manager Unai Emery. Emery led Villa to 7th place and qualification for the Europa Conference League in his first season. In the 2023–24 season, Emery led the club to the Conference League semi-finals, where they were knocked out by Olympiacos, but gained a fourth-place finish in the league, securing participation in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1982–83. In the following Champions League campaign, the team reached the quarter-finals before a 5–4 aggregate loss to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

This season Villa have beaten Bologna (three times), Feyenoord, M Tel-Aviv, Basel, Fenerbache, RB Salzburg, Lyon and Nottingham Forest on the way to the final. Emery himself boasts an impressive run in the Europa League, having only lost a final with Arsenal, He has won it three times with Seville and once with Villarreal. If you are a Villa fan, you will fancy your chances in the Europa League final against Freiburg to finally break the trophy drosught.s