Ex-Man City star creates football history which has never been achieved before

Barcelona have retained their LaLiga title at Real Madrid’s direct expense for the first time – with Joao Cancelo creating football history in the process.

The Blaugrana secured the Spanish top-flight championship after claiming a 2-0 win against their bitter rivals in Sunday night’s El Clasico at the Camp Nou.

AFP

AFP

In doing so, they have achieved a historic first by winning LaLiga as a result of a direct match against Los Blancos.

Barcelona only needed to avoid defeat against Alvaro Arbeloa’s side, as they led Real by 11 points going into the 35th game of the campaign.

And Hansi Flick‘s men brought up an 11th successive league victory as goals a delightful free-kick by Marcus Rashford and Ferran Torres’ strike made it a night to remember for the Catalan outfit.

The loss piles more misery on Real Madrid having won just one of their last six LaLiga matches, while their rivals will forever hold bragging rights over them.

Arbeloa will undoubtedly face more scrutiny over his job with talkSPORT understanding the club have officially begun talks with Jose Mourinho over a return to the Bernabeu following a second successive season with no major silverware.

And you can be sure celebrations in Barcelona will continue long into the early hours on Monday morning after sealing their 19th LaLiga title.

Joao about that?

For ex-Manchester City defender Cancelo, who won six major honours under Pep Guardiola, he has now finally won the league title that evaded him during his previous loan spell at Barca in the 2023/24 season.

Brought back on loan from Saudi side Al Hilal in January, Cancelo has been key in the club’s stunning form in 2026 – chipping in with one goal and three assists from 13 LaLiga matches.

Deployed on both sides of defence, the 31-year-old has become the first footballer to win league titles in four of Europe’s ‘Top Five’ division.

Having won the Primeira Liga with Benfica in 2014, the Serie A title with Juventus was the Portugal international’s first ‘Top Five’ league championship.

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He then scooped three Premier League crowns while at the Etihad Stadium, before lifting the Bundesliga title while on loan at Bayern Munich.

And now he has won the LaLiga title, with only France’s Ligue 1 left to for Cancelo to get his hands on.

A host of players had won league championships in three of the ‘Top Five’ leagues.

David Beckham had the opportunity to become the first person to achieve the incredible feat.

He was successful in England, Spain and France, but failed to win the Serie A title across two loan spells at AC Milan.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo triumphed in England, Spain and Italy with Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming up trumps in Spain, Italy and France.

He, like Beckham, also had the chance to create history when he joined Manchester United in 2016.

But he finished sixth in his only full season in the Premier League, though he did win the Europa League, League Cup and Community Shield.

Other notable players to win titles in the three major countries include Thierry Henry, Kingsley Coman, Dani Alves, Arturo Vidal, Maxwell, Sami Khedira and Claude Makelele.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for Cancelo come the summer, and whether Barcelona press ahead with another loan deal, look to turn his temporary stay into a permanent switch or if he returns to the Middle East.

Or he could look to complete the set and make the move to France to get his hands on the only major league title that has evaded him so far.