Thomas Tuchel wore a pair of 'lucky' shoes at the Champions League final, gifted to him by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
The 47-year-old, who often wears Nike running trainers on matchday because of Chelsea's sponsor Swoosh, paced the touchline in a pair of Hoka One One - Bondi 7's on Saturday night.
Initially, nothing was said about his choice of footwear during the game against City, but when Reece James and Jorginho were spotted holding up Tuchel's shoes during their dressing room celebrations, plenty of people questioned why.
Tuchel, who guided PSG to a domestic quadruple in his second season in charge, also reached a Champions League final with the Ligue 1 side in that season but at the last hurdle, fell to a 1-0 defeat against Bayern Munich.
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It turns out that defeat against Munich at the Estádio da Luz brought about a superstition involving the Hoka shoes.
"I had these shoes in Paris and I made a promise that we will wear these shoes when we reach the Champions League final," Tuchel said after the full-time whistle on Saturday night.
"They were a present from the president at PSG and I promised my staff I would wear them in the final and I did not wear them, so we lost.
"I wore them today and they worked."
In the interview, he continued, saying: "My family is here, my parents are here. My grandad who does not live anymore, it is very emotional.
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"I could not have ever imagined as a young coach that I could touch this cup and now we played two finals and today we won.
"It starts with my father and mother who drove me to every football training. My wife supported me when I was in fifth division as a coach with 20 spectators.
"We like to be the underdogs. It is the truth they were the favourites, there is a big gap between us and them in the league. We accepted it.
"We prepared that we had to suffer but we wanted to be the stone in the shoe and be there constantly.
Topics: Manchester City, Chelsea, Football, Thomas Tuchel, Premier League, Champions League
