- Atlético Mineiro have four CONMEBOL Libertadores champions in their squad, and as many CONMEBOL Sudamericana champions who won it with other clubs.
- At Boca, Miguel Merentiel and Nicolás Figal have already won the CONMEBOL Sudamericana and can do it again with a second club.
The CONMEBOL Sudamericana Final on Saturday, November 21, at the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla, will feature continental champions on both sides. Boca and Atlético Mineiro arrive with squads in which CONMEBOL Libertadores winners sit alongside winners of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana itself, and six of them can win the 'Great Conquest' for a second time, with another club. On the 'Xeneize' side, the coach and the president have also won the CONMEBOL Libertadores as players.
Merentiel and Figal, chasing it with a second club
Miguel Merentiel is Boca's goalscorer for the biggest nights: he has scored in every knockout tie of this edition, and at the Maracanã he made it 2-0 against Vasco da Gama, 34' into the first half, in the comeback that took the team to the Final. The Uruguayan already knows what it is like to win the competition: he was crowned 2020 CONMEBOL Sudamericana champion with Defensa y Justicia, with whom he also lifted the 2021 CONMEBOL Recopa. In Barranquilla he can win it with a second club and claim his first international title with Boca, after the 2023 CONMEBOL Libertadores Final against Fluminense.
Nicolás Figal shares that status. The defender was part of the Independiente squad that won the 2017 CONMEBOL Sudamericana, when Ariel Holan's team celebrated the title at the Maracanã against Flamengo, and in this edition he scored one of the penalties in the shoot-out against O'Higgins in Rancagua that sent Boca through to the Round of 16. Both can become champions of the competition with two different clubs.
Arruabarrena and Riquelme, champions of the continent
On the bench, Boca have another champion. Rodolfo Arruabarrena was one of the key pieces of Carlos Bianchi's Boca side that won the 2000 CONMEBOL Libertadores and scored both of the team's goals in the first leg of the Final against Palmeiras, at La Bombonera, before the penalty shoot-out at the Morumbi. As a coach, he had already taken the 'Xeneize' to the CONMEBOL Sudamericana Semifinals in 2014, and twelve years later he has taken them back to that stage and now to the Final. Alongside him, as club president, is Juan Román Riquelme, a three-time CONMEBOL Libertadores champion as a player, in 2000, 2001 and 2007, who is seeking the club's first international title since the 2008 CONMEBOL Recopa.
Atlético Mineiro, from 'Eternal Glory' to the 'Great Conquest'
On the other side, Eduardo Domínguez's squad includes four CONMEBOL Libertadores champions. The one most closely identified with the club is Bernard: an academy product, he was one of the protagonists of the 2013 triumph before a long career with Shakhtar Donetsk, Everton and Panathinaikos, and since his return in 2024 he has been one of the team's leaders. At 34, he started the comeback against Santos right at the start of the second leg of the Quarterfinals and made it 2-0 in the first leg of the Semifinals against Montevideo City Torque, 42' into the first half.
He is not the only one who has already won the continent's most important Cup. Gustavo Scarpa won back-to-back titles with Palmeiras in 2020 and 2021 and added the 2022 CONMEBOL Recopa; Reinier was part of the Flamengo squad that triumphed in 2019, and Alexsander of the Fluminense squad that won the 2023 edition. Reinier is also one of the key attacking names in the closing stages: he scored twice in the comeback against Santos and returned the one-two for Bernard's 2-0 against Torque.
Renan Lodi and three Ecuadorians, looking to repeat with another club
The 'Galo' also have four CONMEBOL Sudamericana champions who can win it with a second club. Renan Lodi won the 2018 edition with Athletico Paranaense and will play the Final in the city where he played the first leg of that tie, against Junior. A product of the 'Furacão' academy, he moved to Atlético de Madrid in 2019 and later played for Nottingham Forest, Olympique de Marseille and Al-Hilal, before returning to Brazil in January. In the second leg of the Quarterfinals against Santos he delivered the cross for Reinier's 3-1, 41' into the first half, and in the first leg of the Semifinals, 35' into the second half, the one for Thiago Borbas' 3-0 against Torque.
The other three are Ecuadorian and won it with Independiente del Valle. Alan Franco started every match of the 2019 campaign, the one that ended with the Final against Colón in Asunción, and joined Atlético Mineiro in 2020.
Ángelo Preciado was his teammate in that title-winning squad, and Alan Minda was part of the one that won it again in 2022, with a 2-0 victory over São Paulo in the Final in Córdoba. Both joined Atlético Mineiro this year, and Minda has already made his mark on the competition: against Juventud, in the Group Stage, he scored with a chip from outside the box, his first goal for the club in CONMEBOL competitions.
In Barranquilla, either side can add names to that list. If Boca win, Merentiel and Figal will become CONMEBOL Sudamericana champions with two different clubs, and the club will become the competition's first three-time winner. If Atlético Mineiro win, Renan Lodi, Alan Franco, Preciado and Minda will win it again with another club, and Bernard, Scarpa, Reinier and Alexsander will add the 'Great Conquest' to their 'Eternal Glory'. For most of those on the field, however, it will be the first.
