Sports

Ten Significant football events from the 2010s

21 December 201919 August 2021By
Ten Significant football events from the 2010s

The year is coming to an end, and so is the decade. With an eventful past 10 years, we can look back on both wonderful and horrendous things we’re leaving behind in the 2010s. Here are some things you might want to remember from the world of football from the past 10 years.

This piece was inspired by an article by OneFootball. I didn’t agree with it completely, so here are my top 10 picks.

2010 – Spain wins the first World Cup in Africa
Spain’s dominance at the time is reflected in their World Cup victory sandwiched between two Euros in 2008 and 2012. A brawly final affair with the Netherlands saw a record 12 yellow cards shown to both sides combined. Remember the kick to Xabi Alonso’s chest?

2011 – Barcelona destroy Manchester united in the Champions League final at Wembley

Level at half time and looking equally good, the Catalan club blew away United in the game described by Sir Alex as ‘’the best team he’s ever faced’’.

2012 – That Sergio Aguero goal

Mario Balotelli made one assist during his time in the Premier League. Guess which one it was. If you want to know more, I highly recommend watching the ’93:20 Documentary’ because it can’t be described better.

2013 – Sir Alex Ferguson retires

The great Scot won an incredible 38 trophies at Old Trafford and decided to step down at the age of 71. One surprising thing is that he hand-picked David Moyes as his successor, who is now being linked with a job at Everton.

Alex Ferguson. Andrea Sartorati/Flickr.

2014 – Germany thrash Brazil 7-1 and go on to win the World Cup

This will be a vividly remembered game by those who watched it. How did Brazil lose 7-1 at home? Germany showed no mercy that night, and it’s not an overstatement to say Brazil never fully recovered from it. They also became the first team from Europe to win a World Cup in the Americas.

2015 – FIFA corruption scandal

The world governing body for football suffered heavy damage as they were found guilty of accepting bribes with regards to the World Cup biddings. Being a Chelsea fan, I have to add this: Mourinho left Chelsea in the same year as well.

Sepp Blatter at the signing of the agreement creating FIFA. Marcello Casal Jr./Wikimedia.

2016 – Leicester win the Premier League overcoming odds of 5000/1

You might be bored by the ‘rags-to-riches’ commentary that comes up when Jamie Vardy scores every time you play FIFA, but that’s how it was. They did the impossible. It was a miracle season.

The Leicester team lifting the Premier League Trophy. Peter Woodentop/Flickr.

2017 – Neymar’s £190M move to Paris causes madness in football

The Brazilian’s move to the French capital set off a domino effect that inflated the transfer market. To put it in simple terms, Chelsea bought Danny Drinkwater for £35 million, less than a month later, despite his highest market value being £20 million according to tranfermarket.com.

Neymar’s presentation press conference. Antoine Dellenbach/Flickr.

2018 – Legalisation of VAR

The purpose of VAR (Video Assisted Referee) is to help referees. Its philosophy is ‘minimal interference, maximum benefit’. I’ll let you be the judge of that one.

Referees consulting VAR. SounderBruce/Wikimedia.

2019 – Liverpool stun Barcelona

They had no Mo Salah. They were still 1-0 at half time. All they needed was some Gini magic and some fantastic thinking by Alexander-Arnold & Origi to reach an all-English final of the Champions League. European nights at Anfield will never get any better.