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With the year almost finished, we reflect on what was an eventful year in the world of football.
What we have here is the top ten events that caused headlines in 2016.
While there are a variety of different stories of could of, would of, should of, made it onto this list, the following were selected on a criteria of:
– Impact on the football community
– Media coverage
– Rarity
10. Ramos’s extra-time antics
Sergio Ramos’s late game performances had a great deal of football enthusiasts singing his praises in the race for the 2016 Ballon D’or.
Ramos famously scored an injury-time header to help Real Madrid secure the 2014 Champions league, but it’s what he’s done since then that has cemented his standing as one of the most ‘clutch’ players in the world.
In August 2016 Ramos had just arrived just in the nick of injury-time to level up the European Super Cup final against Sevilla – a game that Madrid went on to win 2-1.
Only a few weeks ago, Ramos struck minutes before the final whistle to ensure that honours were shared between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
While there was no Silverware up for grabs, the result means a great deal in the scope of La Liga’s three-horse-race.
What’s more impressive is that Ramos plays out of the most defensive outfield position in football.
Nevertheless, the centre-back is prolific when it comes to winning aerial duels from corners.
Despite his rise in popularity, Ramos failed to pick up a single vote in the 2016 Ballon D’or. This is a fact that may have led to his criticisms of the Ballon D’or’s process.
9. Zizou takes the helm at Real Madrid
For years, the managerial position at the Santiago Bernabeu has been as prestigious as it has been impermanent. Since the reign of Vincente del Bosque and the famed Galacticos, Real Madrid has had a revolving door of managers, with 12 in 13 years.
Those who have taken up the top job at Real Madrid haven’t been slouches. Names like Fabio Capello, Carlos Queiroz, Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez and Carlo Ancelotti, have all tried their hands at the position, all with varying degrees of success.
However, the promotion of club-legend, Zinedine Zidane, has the Bernabeu faithful sure that stability has finally returned to the team that was voted the greatest club of the 20th century.
Over the course of his first 12 months Zidane has already added three pieces of silverware to the Real Madrid trophy room including the club’s obsession – the UEFA Champions league trophy.
8. Pogback
The return of the French midfielder to Manchester United had football fans the world over in a frenzy.
Paul Pogba’s record-breaking £89.3 million fee, was a far cry from the free-transfer that saw Pogba move to Juventus as a teenager.
The “Pogback” campaign caused a tremendous hype with the club’s worldwide fan-base.
The Red Devil faithful had been sorely watching the development of the central midfielder over the course of his four-year stint in Turin.
Apart from those loyal to Manchester United, rival football fans found great pleasure in dubbing the move “the most expensive loan deal in football history”.
7. Big Sam sacked after one game in charge
It’s not quite as turbulent as the Real Madrid role, but the shortcomings of the man in charge of the England national squad are always well-publicised. In the case of managerial journeyman, Sam Allardyce, this sentiment has never been more true.
Allardyce famously found himself in the midst of a sting operation, orchestrated by The Telegraph.
He was caught on tape, discussing the ins and outs of some financial underhandedness with what turned out to be undercover reporters.
Within 24 hours of the tapes surfacing, Allardyce and the FA had come to an agreement over the ‘mutual’ termination of his contract. Big Sam only presided over one fixture during his 67 day stint as the England manager – the shortest on record.
6. Sevilla seal third straight Europa League
This was an accomplishment that didn’t draw as much media attention as maybe it should have. Sevilla, an above-average Spanish club, managed to clinch the Europa league for the third consecutive year.
Sevilla pulled off the feat by overcoming competition favourites, Liverpool, in a touch-and-go final.
Liverpool had already beaten the likes of Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund on the way to the final, and many saw their match against Sevilla as a formality on their way to their first piece of European silverware since 2005.
Liverpool took the lead in the 35th minute through Daniel Sturridge, who divided opinions when he audaciously danced in front of Sevilla supporters. Football karma came back tenfold though, with Sevilla bagging three second half goals and comfortably seeing out the match.
The result made Sevilla the first team in the history of the Europa league (and UEFA Cup) to win the trophy for three straight seasons.
5. Gianni Infantino elected
Following the diabolical finish to Sepp Blatter’s reign as President of FIFA, the footballing world was made to wait while the process of electing a new President took place.
There were a handful of promising candidates and none more so than Gianni Infantino. The Swiss-born Italian has long been a big hitter in the world of football administration.
Since his induction, Infantino has sparked conversation over the size of the World Cup as well the administration of the transfer market. Football lovers the world over will be hoping he doesn’t have the same devious tendencies as his predecessor.
4. Johan Cruyff passes away
The father of ‘Total Football’ and widely remembered as a footballing revolutionary, Johan Cruyff, sadly passed away on the 24th of March 2016.
The Dutchman shot to stardom at the heart of an Ajax team that won three consecutive European Cups (now known as the Champions League), before moving to Barcelona in 1973.
It was at Barcelona that Cruyff really began to develop his reputation as a pioneer of the modern game.
Known for his unorthodox method on and off the ball, Cruyff took the footballing philosophy that served him so well during his playing career and used it to mould the culture of present-day Barcelona.
Cruyff takes a lot of the credit for the success of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, which has produced names like Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
On this day in 2012, Barcelona fielded a team entirely made up of La Masia graduates. They won 4-0 at Levante.
3. Ronaldo’s trophy haul
2016 saw the Portuguese forward excel beyond the standards we’ve come to expect. While this calendar year wasn’t his finest in terms of goal-scoring output, he still managed to help his club and country to success.
With Madrid, Cristiano managed to bag a hattrick of trophies, taking out the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA World Club Cup.
Ronaldo also broke the UEFA Champions league goal-scoring record, bagging 16 goals over the course of the campaign.
At the 2016 Euros, Ronaldo led the line for an industrious Portuguese side, that won ugly all the way to final.
Ronaldo played a very brief role in the final, after being injured in the first half.
But by the close of business Ronaldo had a European Championship to his name and a place in the UEFA Team of the Tournament.
All of these achievements helped Ronaldo to his fourth Ballon D’or and one of the most trophy-rich calendar years in history, for a single player.
2. Leicester City’s league win
Up until last season, the Premier League was famously dominated by a handful of wealthy clubs.
But the antics of Claudio Ranieri and his men over the course of the 2015-16 season well and truly shook up the Premier league establishment.
The story of Leicester City really starts the season before, where they managed to avoid relegation from the English top flight through a series of impressive performances towards the end of the season.
Thanks to timely bouts of form from a handful of players, including Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N’golo Kante, Leicester managed to wrestle their way to the top of the Premier league table by late November.
After losing the lead a number of times to Arsenal and Manchester City, Leicester returned to the summit by Round 23 of competition, where they stayed for the remainder of the season.
Leicester’s triumph against the giants of the English game will go down as one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of football.
1. The Chapecoense tragedy
On the 28th of November 2016 the football world came to a standstill, as reports surrounding the Brazilian air disaster began to surface.
The Brazilian Serie A side had been travelling to the Columbian city of Medellin, when the aircraft they were on allegedly ran out of fuel.
The harshness of the crash drew sympathy from every corner of the footballing community. Distress over what had happened spread quickly, and moments of silence in respect to those who lost lives became customary all around the world.
The team had been on their way to compete in the final of the Copa Sudamericana. Their opponents, Atletico Nacional, would forfeit their claim to the title in honour of the tragedy, instead formally requesting that the trophy be consigned to their Brazilian opponents.
While you don’t want to remember a year for the tribulations that took place, Chapecoense’s misadventures and the scale of the reaction it stirred from the football community earns them their place atop this list- respectfully.
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