It’s time for the first annual FootTheBall awards, here we honour the best of football from throughout the year.
The beautiful game gives us so much to look forward too, so we honour fans, clubs and players from the top 5 leagues in Europe.
First set of awards are for the fans category:
1. Most Hopeful Fans – Liverpool
One of Europe’s most successful club in history has struggled domestically ever-since the Football League was replaced by the Premier League.
The Reds have come pretty close to winning the Premier League title on numerous occasions, but have just fallen short – like in 2013/14 season.
However this hasn’t stopped Anfield faithfuls from being hopeful and saying “next year is our year”, every year.
2. Most Consistent Fans – Arsenal
Arsenal are surely one of the biggest and most consistent team in England, but the Gunners have been a tad bit disappointing when it comes to winning trophies.
A 10-year drought was finally ended by two consecutive FA Cup wins, but the Gunners have failed to win the Premier League in over 12 year now.
However, Arsenal fans seem pretty happy with the consistency of the team – like they say “one-two-three-Arsenal-five”.
3. Time Traveler Fans – Manchester United
Kudos to Manchester United fans, for they haven’t led the recent success in the FA Cup get to their heads. The Old Trafford faithfuls are very calm and composed set of fans.
They do not get into arguments and even if they do, United fans very gently remind us that it is 2012 that we are living in – with Sir Alex guiding them to the 20th Premier League title, so we as mortals should just stay shut.
4. Thick Skinned – Sunderland
Sunderland have the best fan by far, which they’ve proven year after year – with the Black Cats fighting to stay up once again this year.
Sunderland have been of the most consistent teams in the Premier League lately, never letting go of the relegation zone till the very end every season it looks like the Black Cats will finally go down and yet somehow they fight back just in time to stay up.
So just for their sheer courage we give the most Thick Skinned award to Sunderland fans for their continued support of the red and white army.
Next we have the awards for the club category:
1. Most Underachieving Club – Barcelona
Ok..ok, before you get all defensive and all, let us tell you something – Barcelona is 3 points behind Real Madrid in La Liga and the Los Blancos have a game-in-hand too.
And to be honest La Liga has been somewhat of a monopoly of the Catalan giants in the past decade – so come out of the ‘La La land’ you Cules, the party must just have gotten over.
2. Most Revived Team – Leicester City
After a forgetful 2015/16 season where the Foxes had to do the extra work of lifting the Premier League title which forced them to play in the minnows tournament called the Champions League.
Claudio Ranieri has brought consistency and form back at the King Power Stadium. Leicester are back in the relegation zone but facing stiff competition from other title contenders like Crystal Palace and Sunderland.
3. Most Charitable Club – Juventus
The Bianconeri have been a revelation, not just on the pitch but off it too – donating £75.3m to Napoli in a bid to fight obesity.
Juventus didn’t only adopt an obese (but talented) kid from Napoli but also paid the club a huge amount of money to replace him.
The next set of awards are for individual category:
1. Makeover Of The Year – Lionel Messi
The Argentina captain is no doubt one of the greatest to have graced the pitch but this year Messi made headlines for more than just his brilliance on the pitch.
Messi had an eventful year that kick-started his makeover, comprising of two things:
- First the tax evasion case that turned Lionel Messi from a superhero to kids to a mass hero, who you know just probably wanted to save some extra bucks to feed his family.
- Second, poor little Messi succumbed to the fashion Nazi’s, who have questioned his looks and appearances throughout his career. So Messi decided to go blonde and the rest as they say is history.
2. Best ‘Leak’ Of The Year – Ballon d’Or
The best kept secret of the year leaked online somehow – Ballon d’Or winner was leaked a week before the official announcement, sending the world into a frenzy as France Football decided to name an unknown kid from Portugal as the world’s best player ahead of the fan favorite Lord Nicklas Bendtner.
Lord Bendtner scored a whooping 6468 goals this year but was robbed by France Football as they named some ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ as the best player in the world.
3. ‘Agent’ Of The Year – Sam Allardyce
Big Sam revolutionized football coaching and management this year after being named as the head-coach for England’s national team.
Sam Allardyce has been in the business for years now, so it’s obvious he understands the pain of the ill-paid coaches in the beautiful game – so he decided to take the necessary steps to fix that. Big Sam decided to become the first-ever ‘Coach-cum-Agent’, oh-boy and the rest is history.
4. ‘Play’ Of The Year – Paul Pogba In and As ‘The Invisible Man’
Paul Pogba stole the show this year with his brilliant performance as the ‘Invisible Man’ for Manchester United (no i’m not talking about 1897 novel).
The France international was the stand-out (quite literally) performer for the Red Devils this year, as he seemed to just be standing on the pitch all the time (like literally).
5. Teen Sensation Of The Year – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
An unknown prodigy in England before Manchester United scouts found him juggling grapes in the jungles of Paris, this 15-year-old wonder-kid from Sweden has been sensational.
Much is not known about this ‘shy and humble’ teenager, except for one rumour that goes like, before Zlatan was born, the alphabets stopped at Y.
6. Fan Of The Year – Miss Bumbum
Her name says it all, she is the greatest fan to have ever lived – i mean just look at her.
And she knows her football, mind you! From Messi to Pique to Rashford, Miss Bumbum is always eager to show her good side (like she has a bad one).