Only in football, and perhaps only at Real Madrid, would question marks start to surround the future of Zinedine Zidane – the superstar playmaker turned superstar coach who has won just the five trophies in a calendar year. Ending a five-year wait for the La Liga title? Check. Becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles in the Champions League era? Tick.
Zidane has also thrown in the UEFA Super Cup, Supercopa de Espana and Club World Cup for good measure. But with Barcelona having streaked 11 points clear of Real in La Liga before today’s El Clasico, and Tottenham beating Zidane’s men into second during the UCL group stages, recent history only counts for so much.
Real president Florentino Perez is capricious at the best of times and a feeling lingers that Zidane has been lucky enough to inherit an extremely talented group of players whose only need in a coach is for someone to respect. But Zidane hasn’t been collecting trinkets for other people’s hard work. He has played the flourishing Isco in a more advanced role, rescuing him from relative obscurity. Zidane has also given chances to Marco Asensio, whose ascension to stardom at Real must at least be partially attributed to his coach.
Real’s supremacy will nonetheless come under close examination in 2018. After Luis Enrique’s reign at Barca came to a deflating end by their standards, Ernesto Valverde has restored function to the Nou Camp – even if the finesse remains absent. Cristiano Ronaldo may have won his fifth Ballon d’Or but Lionel Messi’s star continues to shine just as bright.
Paris Saint-Germain rocked Barca – and the rest of football – to its core after landing Neymar and Kylian Mbappe for a combined €400 million. Neymar left Catalonia to become the main man in Paris but success in the Champions League is the only yardstick from which he will be judged, no matter how many goals he scores in Ligue 1.
Earlier this year Monaco were the success story in France, cultivating prospects such as Mbappe and besting PSG both domestically and in Europe. But shorn of many of their best talents after summer sales, their time near the top was all too brief.
In England, Antonio Conte led Chelsea to the second-ever highest points tally in the Premier League (93) and the equal amount of consecutive wins (13). Unfortunately for them, Pep Guardiola has ended the year by stealing their thunder. Guardiola’s brand of football has left all-comers dizzy this season as Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Raheem Sterling et al inexorably waltz their way to the Premier League title – one that could be set in record-breaking fashion.
There is a long overdue revival in Serie A with Inter Milan, under Luciano Spalletti, becoming a force once more. Perennial winners Juventus, defeated Champions League finalists in May, are also under threat from Napoli and Roma. AC Milan’s murky situation on and off the field, however, remains a worry. Elsewhere, Bayern Munich have gone back in time to re-appoint treble-winner Jupp Heynckes after Carlo Ancellotti’s demise, but the Bundesliga is as automatic as it ever has been for the Bavarian giants.
SALAH HANDS EGYPT A MO-MOMENT TO SAVOUR
Mohamed Salah has never seen Egypt play at a World Cup but will be the Arab world’s poster boy in Russia after dragging his country to the finals. Arguably no nation will lean as heavily on one man as Egypt next summer, after a scintillating first five months to the season that has Salah on the cusp of becoming a global superstar. He scored both goals in Egypt’s pivotal World Cup qualifier against Congo – including the last-minute penalty that sealed their historic qualification.
And even though Salah has the weight of a football-mad nation on his back, he has remained calm, humble, and endeared himself to Liverpool fans the world over after such a stunning start to life in the Premier League. Egypt are joined at the party by three other Arab nations in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco at the World Cup.
Some of the biggest stories of the year however are reserved for the nations that did not make it through qualifying – and emotions will be running high in Italy for quite some time yet. The four-time winners, the land that produced Franco Baresi, Roberto Baggio and Gianluigi Buffon, slumped to what was previously an unthinkable nadir after a qualification play-off defeat against Sweden. For the first time since 1958, the Italians will not be gracing the World Cup.
There was also deep embarrassment for the USA, who boast one of the world’s most promising talents in Christian Pulisic but failed to progress from a tame qualifying group that included Panama, the small Central America nation heading to the World Cup for the first time. Other stars preparing to sit on their sofas this summer include Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal, after Copa America winners Chile fell short, Wales’ Gareth Bale and the Netherlands – whose struggles, rather shockingly, are no longer shocking.
There was a feel-good story in failure, too, as war-torn Syria beat Saudi Arabia in their last group stage game to advance to a play-off with Australia. If Omar Al Soma’s free-kick had hit the net, rather than the post, the impossible would have become possible.
CLUB OF THE YEAR
Ostersunds
Ostersunds do things differently – their team-bonding exercises include painting, singing, theatre and dance.
There is method in the madness as English manager Graham Potter has taken them to fifth in Sweden’s Allsvenskan and a glamour tie with Arsenal in the Europa League knockouts.
Not bad for a team who were in the third tier six years ago.
GOODBYE TO THE GREATS
Bayern Munich’s Lahm and Roma’s Totti were the ultimate servants. Lampard had a fine career with Chelsea, while Alonso wove his magic in Spain, England and Germany. Pirlo, for Juve and AC Milan, was a playmaker par excellence and Kaka at one time was the world’s greatest.
SIGNING OF THE YEAR
Neymar
At an eye-watering €222m, Neymar could never be considered a bargain, but along with Kylian Mbappe, slightly cheaper at €180m, PSG have pulled out all the stops.
Neymar has scored 17 goals in 20 games so far.
Will a Champions League medal follow?
GAME OF THE YEAR
Barcelona 6 PSG 1 (6-5 on aggregate)
This was perhaps the game that forced PSG to do something drastic – like sign Neymar.
On the opposing side in March, the Brazilian scored a free-kick, a penalty, and then provided the game-winning assist for Sergi Roberto.
Impressive enough in isolation, but consider all this was achieved in the last seven minutes when Barcelona needed three goals to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals, and only then can you begin to grasp the magnitude. A match for the ages.
