Football

Lionel Messi and Argentina. The year was all about that. Messi became immortal on December 18 at the Lusail Stadium in Doha when he kissed the World Cup ending his country’s wait since 1986. And with that, apart from constant comparison with Diego Maradona, he has put to an end his constant connection with Barcelona. From now on it’s Messi holding aloft the World Cup picture in the Argentine shirt and not Messi in a Barca jersey.

It was the year of the other Lionel too — Lionel Scaloni. The 44-year-old former Deportivo la Coruna and Argentina player came in as an interim coach for just two games after a disastrous World Cup campaign in 2018. And now he has led Argentina to three consecutive international trophies in 18 months. The Copa in 2021, Finalissima this June and the icing on the cake, the World Cup.

If Messi was elevated to another level after the Qatar show, Cristiano Ronaldo hit the abyss. He first skipped the pre-season with Manchester United, then hardly got any match-time under new coach Erik ten Hag (he stormed out of a match even before the final whistle was blown), gave an interview blasting the present United dispensation, saw his contract terminated and then hardly did anything noteworthy in the World Cup. Ronaldo, international football’s highest goal-scorer, was in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain teammate, Kylian Mbappe, emerged as the player who will take the mantle from the Argentine magician. Fast, powerful, skillful, has a winning mentality and is decisive. The Frenchman has everything as we saw during the World Cup. The Golden Boot winner is just 24 and he will only scale greater heights. His decision to stay back in Paris dumping Real Madrid generated a lot of news. He is said to be difficult to handle but it’s no denying the fact that this player will rewrite every record set.

At the club level it was Real Madrid once again who dominated the show. La Liga was sealed in Apri. But where they shone was in the Champions League. In every knock-out match they came back from the brink to win matches. Their striker Karim Benzema, who won the Ballon D’Or in October, was in the form of his life. In the final though, it was Vinicius Junior who scored against Liverpool as Madrid won the European Cup a record-extending 15 times. It was also their fifth in eight years.

Back home, India, now 106 in the Fifa rankings, qualified for the AFC Asian Cup to be held in Doha, probably in late-2023 or early 2024. This could be captain Sunil Chhetri’s last tournament in India shirt. But the major news was in the Football House in New Delhi. Kalyan Chaubey, former goalkeeper and now a BJP leader from Bengal, became the new All India Football Federation president after a few months of drama which saw the Supreme Court ousting erstwhile chief Praful Patel and a brief Fifa ban.

India also lost some of its famous footballers like Subhas Bhowmick, Surajit Sengupta, Samar (Badru) Banerjee and Babu Mani in 2022

Other highlights

Novak Djokovic. File photo

⚫ The Australian Open was all about Novak Djokovic who was detained at the border, and was nearly deported. If only he had got himself fully vaccinated, as all other tennis players were happy to do, that embarrassment could have been avoided.

⚫ Wimbledon was stripped of ranking points by ATP and WTA for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes. That did not stop a Russian player, Elena Rybakina, winning the women’s singles title. She formerly represented her country of birth, Russia, but has represented Kazakhstan since 2018. Serena Williams tried coming back, but failed early in the tournament. Serena failed again at the US Open, trying to beat Margaret Court’s grand slam-winning record.

⚫ Rafael Nadal won his 14th French Open title, taking home a record 22nd grand slam trophy. Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open men’s singles final to become the youngest No. 1 male player in tennis history.

⚫ After 24 years on the ATP Tour, with 20 Grand Slam titles to his name, Roger Federer played his final professional match at the fifth edition of the Laver Cup. Federer’s emotional retirement brought to an end a dazzling era in international tennis.

⚫ The US PGA golf made history in several ways. Justin Thomas defeated Will Zalatoris in a three-hole aggregate playoff to win his second PGA Championship (2017). Thomas came from seven shots behind at the start of the final round to win, tying the biggest comeback in PGA Championship history.

⚫ The golfing world was shaken up with the unveiling of a Saudi-backed breakaway golf league, the LIV Golf Series. It involves an eight-tournament schedule with a total prize fund of $250 million. The league, fronted by Australia’s two-time Major winner Greg Norman, is set to run from June to October and be played across three continents.

⚫ At the World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Katie Ledecky won a record-breaking fifth straight 800m world title.

⚫ A dramatic women’s 100m final at the European Athletics Championships in Munich saw the top three split by just 0.01 seconds. Gold went to Gina Lückenkemper of hosts Germany.

⚫ Red Bull Racing’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen clinched his second Formula One world championship title. The 25-year-old sealed the title with four races remaining when he won the Japanese Grand Prix on October 9. Verstappen set two new records in 2022 – most race wins in a single season (15) and most points in a single season (454).