Former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris says that players received a watch engraved with “Champions League finalist” from chairman Daniel Levy before their loss to Liverpool.
The Frenchman admits the gesture left him questioning whether the club truly prioritised winning.
During his 12-year tenure with Tottenham, much of it as captain, Lloris saw the club come close to success but fall short in key moments, including two League Cup final defeats and a loss in the 2019 Champions League final.
In that game, Liverpool’s early lead came after a controversial penalty, with Lloris conceding from the spot due to a handball by teammate Moussa Sissoko.
However, Lloris recalls being unsettled before the final even started.
Levy gathered the team just days before to present them with engraved watches, which the goalkeeper felt betrayed a complacency with second place rather than striving for victory.
In his forthcoming autobiography, ‘Earning My Spurs’, Lloris shares his frustration with the gesture.
He said: “Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, we would each receive a luxury aviator watch from the club.
“At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes.
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Hugo Lloris revealed that Daniel Levy met with the players 4 days before the Champions League Final in 2019 that they would be receiving a luxury aviator watch from the club.
The back of the watches were engraved with ‘Champions League Finalist 2019.’
Embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/gnUJF7hyWg
— Spurs Connect (@Spurs_Connect) November 7, 2024
“Then we opened them and discovered that he’d had the back of each timepiece engraved with the player’s name and ‘Champions League Finalist 2019.’ ‘Finalist.’
“Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone.
“If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have ‘Winner’ engraved instead.
“I would have preferred there to be nothing on it. With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.”
Reflecting on the post-match reception, Lloris was disappointed by what he perceived as a lack of seriousness among some club officials and players following the defeat.
He added: “I would have liked people to come up to me and say, ‘Don’t worry, Hugo. Never again. We’ll give you the means for a comeback.’
“But when I returned to my room on the night of the final, I think I had the same feeling as Mauricio [Pochettino] and Harry [Kane]: does the club really want to win?
“Real Madrid would never have celebrated a lost final, and we shouldn’t have either.”
Lloris made his final Spurs appearance in April 2023 and later joined Los Angeles FC. He is also France’s most-capped male footballer.
