2016 has come and gone in a flash. For football fans, it's been a fairytale year with many surprises. Here are the most amazing moments that unfolded in the past year.
RB Leipzig has had an amazing first year in Bundesliga
For the first time since 2009, a team from East Germany is playing in the Bundesliga. RB Leipzig, owned by an energy drink company Red Bull, were founded in 2009. The club was founded out of a partnership with fifth division side SSV Markranstadt, who sold RB Leipzig their senior and youth players along with their rights to play in the league.
RB Leipzig have slowly climbed up the table since then, while spending the money wisely from their billionaire owners to bring in talented youngsters. Seven years since they were created they have jumped from the fifth division all the way to the Bundesliga. The young club’s accomplishments don’t end there. Since their arrival in the first division, they have won 10 out of their first 13 matches while drawing three times and losing none. They somehow even managed to top the league until December 10th, when they suffered their first defeat in the hands of Ingolstadt. Currently, they sit in second, six points clear of third place Hertha Berlin, and their cinderella story has to be one of the biggest stories this year.
Before the 2015 edition of the Copa America, the Chilean National Team had never won a Copa America title in the tournament’s 99 years existence. However, with the boost of playing in front of their home crowd, they finally captured their first title in 2015, defeating favorites Argentina in penalty shootouts after playing out a goaless 120 minutes.
In a surprising return to the tournament final, they increased their championship tally by winning the 100th anniversary edition of Copa America in 2016, defeating Argentina in penalty shootouts again in similar fashion to last year. In contrast to 2015's tournament, in which they scraped though controversial wins against Uruguay and Peru (with Edinson Cavani, Jorge Fucile and Carlos Zambrano all sent off), in 2016 Chile outplayed their opponents brilliantly – handing out 7-0 and 2-0 defeats to Mexico and Colombia, respectively.
This remains one of the biggest stories this year, with Lionel Messi announcing his retirement from the national team after losing the final to Chile, something he’d retract few months later.
Zinedine Zidane has won 3 trophies in his first year as Real Madrid manager
Real Madrid were going through a tough period under Rafa Benitez during the first half of 2015/16 season. They suffered a 4-0 defeat at home to Barcelona, were third in the league, and the tension between the manager and the players was rapidly increasing.
After the pressure from fans and disappointing results, Benitez was finally sacked in January 2016 and Zinedine Zidane, who had no prior experience managing in top flight, was appointed. There were doubts over his appointment after failing to promote Castilla back to Segunda division during his time in charge of the reserve team. However, since his appointment, Real Madrid have lost only twice in the calendar year, winning the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super League and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Zidane, who was one of the biggest legends in his playing career, has started out his coaching career very successfully indeed.
In international football, Portugal are notorious underachievers. Despite producing much world class talent, such as Eusebio, Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and Pauleta, they’ve never won an international title prior to Euro 2016. The closest they had ever come to a title was back in Euro 2004, where they lost to an underdog Greece in a final held in their own backyard.
Coming into Euro 2016, there wasn't much expected from the team due to a lack of star power in the squad (outside, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo). They were ranked seventh in the odds to win the tournament at 20/1. After a dreadful group stage performance, where A Seleção failed to win any of the three games, expectations were even lower for them to.
How we wish we had placed that 20/1 bet on them now. As Portugal progressed further in the tournament, their performance improved dramatically. They proved the pundits and experts wrong when they defeated host-nation France in the final without the key player Ronaldo, ending their international title drought.
Leicester City had a difficult time during 2014/15 season. Until the middle of April, they were dead and buried in last place of the Premier League. However, they somehow managed to win seven out of their last nine games, which saw them climb up to 14th place on the table. They became only the third team in history to escape relegation after having been at the bottom of the table at Christmas.
Despite Nigel Pearson’s success at keeping the club in the Premier League, he was sacked at the end of June after a racist sex tape featuring Leicester players, involving his son James, leaked during a post-season tour in Thailand. Controversy surrounded the club and tensions from the fans increased when Claudio Ranieri, an experienced but inconsistent manager, was brought in.
Despite skepticism and a lack of star power, Leicester started the season brilliantly with three wins in first five games. With consistent performances from Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Wes Morgan and Danny Drinkwater, they went on to keep this form until the end of the season. Ranieri, who was known as “tinker man” for making too many changes in the past, barely changed his starting line up and the flat 4-4-2 formation throughout the season. The Foxes never dropped below the sixth place throughout the season, another impressive record for the club of its structure.
After Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea on May 2nd, Leicester became the Premier League champions for the first time in their 132 year history. After beating 5000 to 1 odds in a quite spectacular fashion, their story is the biggest football story of 2016 and it will be the biggest underdog story for a long time to come.
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