TFC's 10 highlights of 2018
The year 2018 has brought a lot of memories to the beautiful game in defining moments whether it brought joy, heartbreak, controversy, anger, etc. There's so much to choose from so here is The Fußball Chatter's 10 highlights of 2018
City's Century Season
PSG won Ligue 1 and Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga with little ease. Juventus won Serie A after a tough title challenge from Napoli. Barcelona could have been on the list if they remained unbeaten but Manchester City starts this list for their record breaking season. Pep Guardiola won his first Premier League title with some style. They won 32 games, a PL record, scored the most games in a PL season and accumulated 100 points in the 2017/18 season. The most ever in the British top flight. Pep is building a dynasty at City and despite the competition, City are the team to beat and it will take a long time for their record to be broken.
Mohamed Salah's record breaking debut season
If there's anyone aside from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo that have wowed people this year, it's Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian in his debut season back in the Premier League shocked many with his performances scoring 32 goals in the Premier League, the most in a 38-game season. Salah has become not only a hero at Anfield but an icon in his homeland and the Middle East. He has continued his knack for scoring, netting 13 goals this season so far in the Premier League and it depends whether he leads Liverpool to a first ever Premier League title in 2019.
Allez Le Bleu
This year brought the FIFA World Cup as Russia hosted the tournament of 32 teams from across the world. A successful tournament with 169 goals, the tournament belonged to France who won the tournament led by coach Didier Deschamps who was France's winning captain in 1998. Le Bleu scored 13 goals to winning the tournament with the likes of Olivier Giroud, Antonie Griezmann and Paul Pogba. It's been a long time coming for France after losing in the European Championship Final on home soil and with a strong core of players, France could dominate the international game for years to come.
Modrić breaks Messi-Ronaldo duopoly
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the football scene for about a decade but one player has managed to break that dominance. Luka Modrić. The Croatian has a great year winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and leading Croatia to their first ever World Cup winning the Golden Ball award for the Best Player. He also won the FIFA's Best Player of the Year and the Ballon D'or becoming the first player outside of Messi and Ronaldo since Kaká to win the award and the first non-attacker to win the award since Fabio Cannavaro.
Madrid's Three Peat
The dominance of Spanish sides in the Champions League continues with Real Madrid winning the Champions League for the third straight year. The first team to achieve to do this. Zinedine Zidane's Madrid beat the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern Munich to reach the final facing Liverpool where they won 3-1 courtesy of a brace from Gareth Bale and a goal by Karim Benzema. Unlikely to win it with the departures of Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, what they have managed to achieve is incredible.
Ronaldo moving to Juventus
A lot of transfer activity have been done this year but one major transfer that generated a lot of news waves was Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Italian giants Juventus for €100 million. That's a lot considering Ronaldo is 33 years old but also tells his drive to continue to play in the highest level.It's a bold move for Juventus and has generated buzz for the Serie A who have struggled for some time now with very few star players. It's a move that not only shows Juve's desire of winning the Champions League but will make people follow Serie A with this new chapter on Ronaldo's career.
Change of guard at Arsenal
2018 will be the year that Arsene Winger ended his managerial stint at Arsenal after 22 years. It was announced in April and despite playing a hand in Arsenal's woes over the past three years, he was given a hero's departure for what he has achieved with the North London side with 7 FA Cups and 3 Premier League titles in over two decades. Unai Emery was chosen as his successor but it remains weird that Wenger is not at the Arsenal dugout anymore.
The UEFA Nations League
A new international competition come out this year which is the UEFA Nations League. It was created to make international football exciting again which they managed to achieve. Putting the best teams against one another, it has managed to bring excitement also well as a meaningful assessment of where international sides in Europe are from the Netherlands to Germany. The Finals are happening next year with Portugal, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands battling out on who will win the inaugural competition.
Football twilight stories
This year we saw a number of great players retire this year whether fully or in the international stage. This year, Didier Drogba retired after a 20 year career and we saw Andres Iniesta play for the last time in Barcelona colours with many of the players from the tiki-taka era retired or at the last hurdle. In the Premier League, Michael Carrick ended his career with Manchester United after 12 years with Manchester United. In international football, the likes of Tim Cahill, David Silva, Victor Moses, Gerard Pique, Pepe and Javier Mascherano all retires from the international game after a long career. Thank you for the memories you have given us.
Kylian Mbappé
However, we have a number of young players we can be pretty excited about from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthjis de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, etc. The player many see dominate in the coming would be French forward Kylian Mbappé. The forward broke in 2017 with AS Monaco eventually moving French giants Paris Saint-Germain where he won a domestic treble in his first season. He was introduced to a wider audience in the World Cup scoring four goals including one in the final becoming the first teenager since Pelé in 1958. A key player already for PSG and France, Mbappé is not only for the future but the here and now.
Thank you all. Happy New Year.🎉🎉🎊
City's Century Season
PSG won Ligue 1 and Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga with little ease. Juventus won Serie A after a tough title challenge from Napoli. Barcelona could have been on the list if they remained unbeaten but Manchester City starts this list for their record breaking season. Pep Guardiola won his first Premier League title with some style. They won 32 games, a PL record, scored the most games in a PL season and accumulated 100 points in the 2017/18 season. The most ever in the British top flight. Pep is building a dynasty at City and despite the competition, City are the team to beat and it will take a long time for their record to be broken.
Mohamed Salah's record breaking debut season
If there's anyone aside from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo that have wowed people this year, it's Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian in his debut season back in the Premier League shocked many with his performances scoring 32 goals in the Premier League, the most in a 38-game season. Salah has become not only a hero at Anfield but an icon in his homeland and the Middle East. He has continued his knack for scoring, netting 13 goals this season so far in the Premier League and it depends whether he leads Liverpool to a first ever Premier League title in 2019.
Allez Le Bleu
This year brought the FIFA World Cup as Russia hosted the tournament of 32 teams from across the world. A successful tournament with 169 goals, the tournament belonged to France who won the tournament led by coach Didier Deschamps who was France's winning captain in 1998. Le Bleu scored 13 goals to winning the tournament with the likes of Olivier Giroud, Antonie Griezmann and Paul Pogba. It's been a long time coming for France after losing in the European Championship Final on home soil and with a strong core of players, France could dominate the international game for years to come.
Modrić breaks Messi-Ronaldo duopoly
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the football scene for about a decade but one player has managed to break that dominance. Luka Modrić. The Croatian has a great year winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and leading Croatia to their first ever World Cup winning the Golden Ball award for the Best Player. He also won the FIFA's Best Player of the Year and the Ballon D'or becoming the first player outside of Messi and Ronaldo since Kaká to win the award and the first non-attacker to win the award since Fabio Cannavaro.
Madrid's Three Peat
The dominance of Spanish sides in the Champions League continues with Real Madrid winning the Champions League for the third straight year. The first team to achieve to do this. Zinedine Zidane's Madrid beat the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern Munich to reach the final facing Liverpool where they won 3-1 courtesy of a brace from Gareth Bale and a goal by Karim Benzema. Unlikely to win it with the departures of Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, what they have managed to achieve is incredible.
Ronaldo moving to Juventus
A lot of transfer activity have been done this year but one major transfer that generated a lot of news waves was Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Italian giants Juventus for €100 million. That's a lot considering Ronaldo is 33 years old but also tells his drive to continue to play in the highest level.It's a bold move for Juventus and has generated buzz for the Serie A who have struggled for some time now with very few star players. It's a move that not only shows Juve's desire of winning the Champions League but will make people follow Serie A with this new chapter on Ronaldo's career.
Change of guard at Arsenal
2018 will be the year that Arsene Winger ended his managerial stint at Arsenal after 22 years. It was announced in April and despite playing a hand in Arsenal's woes over the past three years, he was given a hero's departure for what he has achieved with the North London side with 7 FA Cups and 3 Premier League titles in over two decades. Unai Emery was chosen as his successor but it remains weird that Wenger is not at the Arsenal dugout anymore.
The UEFA Nations League
A new international competition come out this year which is the UEFA Nations League. It was created to make international football exciting again which they managed to achieve. Putting the best teams against one another, it has managed to bring excitement also well as a meaningful assessment of where international sides in Europe are from the Netherlands to Germany. The Finals are happening next year with Portugal, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands battling out on who will win the inaugural competition.
Football twilight stories
This year we saw a number of great players retire this year whether fully or in the international stage. This year, Didier Drogba retired after a 20 year career and we saw Andres Iniesta play for the last time in Barcelona colours with many of the players from the tiki-taka era retired or at the last hurdle. In the Premier League, Michael Carrick ended his career with Manchester United after 12 years with Manchester United. In international football, the likes of Tim Cahill, David Silva, Victor Moses, Gerard Pique, Pepe and Javier Mascherano all retires from the international game after a long career. Thank you for the memories you have given us.
Kylian Mbappé
However, we have a number of young players we can be pretty excited about from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthjis de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, etc. The player many see dominate in the coming would be French forward Kylian Mbappé. The forward broke in 2017 with AS Monaco eventually moving French giants Paris Saint-Germain where he won a domestic treble in his first season. He was introduced to a wider audience in the World Cup scoring four goals including one in the final becoming the first teenager since Pelé in 1958. A key player already for PSG and France, Mbappé is not only for the future but the here and now.
Thank you all. Happy New Year.🎉🎉🎊
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