2020…What A Footballing Year!
Posted: 31 December 2020
CHIEFS LOSE TITLE IN 15 ODD MINUTES
The calendar year 2020 has been one of the most unreliable and difficult year the world has ever seen, but it seemed twice as harder for Kaizer Chiefs.
The Phefeni Glamour Boys let slip more than 10 points with only seven games left to play, a proper “football has got no therefore” situation. Chiefs, who last won a league title back in May 2015 under the stewardship of Stuart William Baxter, have experienced one of the longest dry spells in the club’s proud history.
Amakhosi needed to beat a desperate Baroka FC side to clinch the title, but succumbed to a one-all draw at home, while Mamelodi Sundowns FC made lightweight of another Limpopo side Black Leopards to lift the title for a historical tenth time.
LIVERPOOL WIN FIRST LEAGUE TITLE IN 30 YEARS
English giants Liverpool Football Club this year won the English Premier League for the first time in thirty long years as Jurgen Klopp guided the Merseyside club to victory.
The Reds blew away Manchester City, who were reigning champions by a country mile of points before wrapping up the title in some style.
The Anfield side boasted one of the most-feared threesome in world football; Sadio Mane, Mohamad Salah and Firmino, who scored more than seventy goals among them, while keeping the backdoor shut through the towering figure of Virgil Van Dijk and forever reliable Allisson.
MESSI FAXES BARCA; REQUESTS EXIT
An icon, a superstar, a football god in his own right; Lionel Andres Messi shocked the world of football by confirming that he sent a fax message to the Barcelona hierarchy requesting to leave the Basque club.
La Pulga, as Messi is known in Spain, arrived in Barcelona as a fresh-faced teenager some two decades ago, and almost felt like part of the furniture at the Camp Nou, requested to leave the club after clashing countless times with former President Josep Maria Bartomeu.
It felt a case of a 1-1 to both men, as Messi denied to leave, with another exit door opening on Bartomeu’s face – resigning alongside his entire board. However, Messi has once again made it clear that this is his last season at the club he so much loves and desires.
PITSO LIFTS TREBLE AT DOWNS, LEADS AHLY TO ANOTHER TREBLE!
South African-born coach Pitso Mosimane owned the year 2020 with six trophies with two different teams; Mamelodi Sundowns FC and Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Mosimane guided The Brazilians to the Telkom Cup, The Nedbank Cup and the Premier Soccer League title, his personal fifth with the club, and the tenth for the Brazilians.
The Mogale-City tactician then joined The Red Devils, where he completed another stunning season with the Egyptian league, the Egyptian Cup and the big one, “The Big Fish” as he would say, The African Champions League. Mosimane is yet to taste defeat with his new team in three full month’s in charge at the Cairo International Stadium.
It is safe to say, 2020 has been a year of if’s, but’s and maybe’s, but what a special, unprecedented, unpredictable football year it has been! We are most certainly looking forward to more of the same please in 2021!
Article By;
Selebalo Karabo Phasha, Chris Wheatley, and Baba Mali Traore.
What a year!