English football’s basement division and the UEFA Champions League are poles apart, but for Port Vale, the gap will surely be shrinking this season. That’s because the Valiants are currently flying high in League Two, occupying second place in the table and looking like a shoo-in for promotion with just two games remaining.
Masters of Their Own Destiny
The bookies certainly feel like Vale have enough in the tank to get over the line. Online football odds providers currently make the Valiants a mightily short 1/25 shot to secure promotion and a 9/4 contender to overtake league leaders Doncaster Rovers and win the title. At the opposite end of the football spectrum, however, a different story is being told.
The bright lights of European football’s most elite club competition are a distant dream for Port Vale supporters. It isn’t, though, for fans of Paris Saint-Germain, the team that is the current 2/1 favourite to win the tournament in the latest Champions League betting odds list. Considering the huge gulf between the two clubs, it might come as a surprise to hear that a few former Vale stars have graced the hallowed turf of the UCL. Here are the two biggest names to have done exactly that.
Two days to go, Valiants! ✌️
Who’s joining us in the capital this weekend?#PVFC pic.twitter.com/Zed9jnFOLJ
— (P)ort Vale FC (@OfficialPVFC) April 24, 2025
Chris Eagles
Former Watford winger Chris Eagles played for the Vale in the twilight years of his career. He joined from Accrington Stanley back in January 2017 and would go on to make 20 appearances for the Valiants, scoring four goals. His exploits were crucial in the Burslem outfit’s quest for survival, but ultimately, five defeats on the spin throughout the latter stages of the season saw Port Vale relegated to League Two by just one point.
Rewind a decade and Eagles was a promising youngster coming through the ranks at Manchester United, training alongside fellow right-winger Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford. The Englishman had a 13-minute cameo against Fenerbahçe in the 2004/05 season, as well as the full 90 minutes in a qualifier against Romanian side FC Dinamo 1948. Three years later, he once again played the full 90, this time in a 1-1 group stage draw away at AS Roma.
André Bikey
Towering central defender André Bikey played alongside the aforementioned Eagles at Vale Park in that unsuccessful 2017 campaign. He, too, has Champions League ties.
Back in 2005, the 25-time Cameroonian international was playing for Lokomotiv Moscow, and he featured twice in Champions League qualifiers against Serbian outfit Rabotnicki and Rapid Vienna. Unfortunately, Bikey and the Russian outfit failed to reach the group stage, but did impress in the UEFA Cup.
Bikey played eight times in that competition that season, helping Lokomotiv to victories against Brondby and Maccabi Petah Tikva before losing out to eventual champions Sevilla in the first knockout round.
Despite losing their last game against relegation-threatened Carlisle United, Darren Moore’s side remain the masters of their own destiny, and Port Vale know that victories in their next two games against AFC Wimbledon and Gillingham will see them over the line.
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