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Football London
Football London
Sport
Jonty Colman

How Emerson can eclipse Mason Mount and N'Golo Kante as West Ham eye European dream

West Ham United left-back Emerson will seal an unlikely treble of European trophies this season if the Hammers win the Europa Conference League this season.

Next Thursday, the Hammers will face Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at the London Stadium in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final, with the two sides meeting in Alkmaar a week later, with the winner facing either Basel or Fiorentina in June’s final in Czech Republic.

The left-back, who signed for West Ham for £13million (rising to £15million in add-ons) from Chelsea in August, has had a mixed time at the Hammers so far, with he and Aaron Cresswell both struggling to nail down the starting spot at left-back in David Moyes’ side.

READ MORE: West Ham face Danny Ings dilemma as Lucas Paqueta shows future role in Man City defeat

Despite spells in and out of the team, Emerson has played 29 times in all competitions and scored two goals, with seven of his appearances coming in the Europa Conference League.

Aged 28, Emerson has just 225 career club appearances to his name, a number fractionally lower than Hammers captain Declan Rice, who is four years younger than Emerson. However, Emerson does have an impressive set of honours under his belt at both club and country level.

The Brazilian-born Italy international arrived at West Ham having won both the Champions League and Europa League with West Ham’s London rivals, as well as the 2021 UEFA Super Cup.

At international level, Emerson was part of the Italy side that beat Rice and England in the final of the 2020 European Championships, further adding to his impressive trophy haul.

He will add to that once against next month, should West Ham reach the final of the Europa Conference League and then win the competition.

By doing that, he would become the first player ever to have won the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League, eclipsing the achievements he completed alongside his former Chelsea teammates that included the likes of Mason Mount and N'Golo Kante.

One manager has won all three already, with Roma’s former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho completing that feat when winning the inaugural edition of the competition last season, with Roma beating Feyenoord in the final.

Now, Emerson will look to emulate Mourinho and become the first player to lift the new-look European trophy treble and West Ham are just three matches away from being able to do exactly that.

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