Tuesday 31 December 2013

Football. What a wonderful word. But it hasn't been treated that well to be honest. We've had racism encouters, crowd trouble, match fixing and many more. But while we have had the bad times in football, we have also had the good moments. Aguero's last minute goal to win Manchester City's first title since 1968, We've had incredible goals, incredible tricks and flicks and so much more.
Here I will countdown the top nine moments in 2013 before this amazing year is over:

9. Brazil destroy Spain 3-0 in the Confederations Cup. Goals from Fred (2) and Neymar and a David Luiz clearance. It was Brazil's 4th Confederations Cup win and only Spain's third defeat under Vicente Del Bosque.

8. Neymar moves to Barcelona from Santos for £48m. Neymar scored 54 goals in 103 league appearances for Santos and has scored 6 in 14 league appearances for Barcelona. Neymar was heavily linked to moves with Real Madrid but Barcelona stole him and made him the 10th most expensive player of all time.

7. Joe Kinnear goes back to Newcastle as following his stint as manager in the 2008-09 season. Kinnear had always said that he wanted to leave Newcastle. But the club was left furious when he mispronounced Charles N'Zogbia's name, instead he called him "Charles Insomnia". First of all, who has a surname of insomnia? And second of all, learn how to say your players' name correctly! Kinnear was forced to resign after suffering health issues.
However, in 2013, Kinnear was appointed Director Of Football at Newa castle-much to the displeasure of the fans. But what was even worse was that he mispronounced the name of Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Shola Ameobi. I can totally understand the fans displeasure. Kinnear needs to learn who his players are and how to say their names, otherwise he shouldn't be at ANY football club.

6. Pep Guardiola moves to Bayern Munich following his "break from football". Guardiola was a big favourite at the Camp Nou and won 14 trophies in his 4 year reign. Guardiola is still a young manager at just 42. This means that he still has a long future ahead of him. Where that future might take him? I don't know. But one thing is for sure, we cannot fault his managerial record.


5.Robert Lewandoski scores FOUR against Spanish giants Real Madrid in the Champions League Semi-Final. Lewandoski became the first ever player to score four goals in a Champions League Semi-Final. Although Madrid won the second leg 2-0, they failed to progress and lost 4-3 on aggregate. Real Madrid would have felt frustrated as they had chance after chance
but couldn't put them away.

4. Bayern Munich crush Barcelona 4-0 and 3-0 in two legs in the Champions League Semi-Final meeting. Thomas Muller scored three, Robben two, Gomez and a Gerard Pique own goal rounded up the 7-0 demolition of the favourites. No-one expected this, perhaps not even Jupp Heynckes. But despite Barcelona's despair, it was Bayern who progressed to an all German final and they later went on to win in extra time against Borussia Dortmund.

3. Sir Alex Ferguson retires as manager of Manchester United. Sir Alex is one of- if not the most- respected manager of all time and what a shame it was to hear that he was to leave the touchline. He would be sorely missed. Well actually, he has been in the stands for many of United's games this season. As if David Moyes needs more pressure...


2. Luis Suarez bites Branislav Ivanovic. Well, what can I really say about that? It speaks for itself. In Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Chelsea, Suarez was tussling for the ball when he supposedly-sorry, DEFINITELY sank his teeth into the Serbian defender's arm. That wasn't the first time Suarez had been banned for biting, in 2010 as Ajax captain he bit a players' shoulder and was banned for seven games. I think that it's obvious that his role model is Mike Tyson.

1. Welshman Gareth Bale joins Real Madrid for a world record £85m. Bale scored 21 goals in 33 games for Tottenham and became their top goalscorer in a single season for Spurs, beating Teddy Sheringham. Bale was also linked to Manchester United but no formal bid was made. And then Madrid decided to break the transfer record AGAIN but this time only by £5m, The winger will earn £300,000 a week for six years at the Madrid based club. That's £93m over six years!!!!! But whether he is worth all that money? I don't think so. About £60m of that sum came from the 2012/13 season. And that is what I don't like about transfers, they are effectively based on just one season. And I don't know about you but I totally disagree with that.



Well there you have it. My top nine moments of 2013. Hope you have enjoyed this post and keep updated.

Tweet me at @kamsfootyblog.

AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!