Football 2021 Review
By, Amir NANWANI, Leo O'NEILL and Arnav AHUJA.
2021 has been a wild year for football because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced matches to be postponed. Overall, there were many great transfers and interesting seasons in all football leagues. For example, Chelsea winning the Champions League was a shock for many people.
That wasn’t enough to sway all fans over, however. According to football fan Rumi Nanwani, “2021 was a redundant year in football because fans were left at home to watch old games.”
Major Transfers
2021 had a plethora of interesting transfers. Of note were football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo leaving their clubs.
One of the biggest transfers was Ronaldo returning to Manchester United towards the end of 2021, approximately twelve years since he had last played for the Red Devils. For only 20 million pounds, the transfer excited many fans. Ronaldo has proven the transfer to be worth it, having scored multiple goals.
Another huge and shocking transfer was Messi leaving his team, FC Barcelona, to go to Paris Saint Germain (PSG) for around only 30 million pounds. It was arguably the best signing for PSG this season. Prior to his departure, Messi was seen crying in his last press-conference for Barcelona.
The most expensive transfer this season was Jack Grealish moving to Manchester City for a shocking fee of 100 million pounds. However, some people think that the transfer cost way too much money. On the other hand, a lot of fans thought that the transfer was worth it, much like Manchester City’s other past transfers.
Another expensive signing was Romelu Lukaku’s homecoming to the Premier League. Sitting close behind the transfer fee of Grealish, Lukaku was signed by the Champions League winning side, Chelsea, for a fee of 97.5 million pounds. Lukaku was expected to make Chelsea an even better team. Unfortunately for Chelsea, Lukaku got injured very quickly and soon stated that he wanted to leave Chelsea.
English wonderkid Jadon Sancho made a move from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United alongside World Cup winner Raphael Varane, who moved from Real Madrid. The fans of the Red Devils were super excited to see how Manchester United would do in the Premier League as three big profile players moved to the Red Devils in 2021.
UEFA Champions League
The 2020-21 Champions League was full of great matches, providing great entertainment to fans across the world. Chelsea was the overall winner in an all-English final hosted in the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal.
There has been an abundance of great goalkeepers in the Champions League. The best goalkeeper award was given to Eduard Mendy of Chelsea after being voted nearly double the points as second place, Ederson Santana de Moraes of Manchester City.
Ruben Dias of Manchester City was awarded the best defender in the Champions League after a landslide vote. Second was Cesar Aziplicueta, a Spanish Chelsea defender. Third place was given to Antonio Rüdiger, yet another Chelsea defender.
The best midfielder of the Champions League was N’Golo Kante for Chelsea, with second being Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and the third going to Jorginho Luiz Frello Filho, a fellow teammate of Kante. Having two players in the midfielder awards shows how dominant Chelsea and their powerful midfield has been throughout the Champions League.
The best forward of the Champions League went to Erling Haaland, who was also the top scorer in the champions league, bagging ten goals. Mbappe was voted second place, and Robert Lewandoski in third.
Chelsea were the winners of the Champions League and scored many goals. Mendy, their goalkeeper, made some great saves. Chelsea’s midfield and defense was also very dominant.
Chelsea’s best youngsters have been shining this year. They are Mason Mount, Christan Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Reece James. They also have some fantastic players in their academies.
Premier League
The Premier League was action packed in the 2020-21 season with some great matches and amazing goals. There has also been an abundance of goals by lots of different players.
Top Scorers:
Harry Kane - 23 goals
Mohammed Salah - 22 goals
Bruno Fernandes - 18 goals
Heung-Min Son - 17 goals
5. Patrick Bamford - 17 goals
Most Assists:
Harry Kane - 14 assists
Kevin De Bruyne - 12 assists
Bruno Fernandes - 12 assists
Heung-Min Son - 10 assists
Jack Grealish - 10 assists
The overall winners of the Premier League were Manchester City, followed by rivals Manchester United. It was an intriguing season with an extraordinarily tight Champions League spot race, in which Liverpool and Chelsea managed to clinch the third and fourth spots in the last two Premier League gameweeks.
English Cup Competitions
The FA Cup was very entertaining with a lot of great matches. Notably, Crawley Town unexpectedly beat Leeds 3-0 at a home game. Also notable was Leicester City winning the FA Cup after a victory against Chelsea in the final.
Another English cup competition was the Carabao Cup. The overall winners of the Carabao Cup were Manchester City, who beat Tottenham Hotspurs in the final. The final was a watertight game where Manchester City managed to get a late winner in the 82nd minute over Aymeric Laporte in a tight score of 1-0.
UEFA Euro 2021
The European Championship, informally known as the Euros, was postponed to 2021 from 2020. The Euros group stage was comprised of six groups, one of which was known as the “group of death,” consisting of France, Germany and Portugal. The Euros also implemented a new rule, allowing some third place teams to still make it through to the round of sixteen rather than going straight to the quarter finals.
France, the World Cup winners, disappointed many people after losing in the last round of sixteen against Switzerland in the penalty shootouts. In the semi-finals, England and Denmark were in a deadlock, with Harry Kane scoring in extra time after his missed penalty rebounded to his feet. In the other semi-final game, Italy beat Spain in the penalty shootouts.
In the final, Luke Shaw scored the first goal for England early in the game. Later, Leonardo Bonucci scored a goal from an Italy corner. The game ended in a penalty shootout. England eventually lost in the penalty shootout, with youngster Bukayo Saka missing the final penalty. The penalty result was 3-2.
Other Major Leagues
France League/Ligue Un:
The winner of last year’s French League/Ligue Un was Lille. It was an amazing season by Lille’s normal standards. Although most pundits would have predicted PSG as the champions, given their great players and signings, Lille managed to win the title by a margin of only one point ahead of PSG.
The top scorer of the league was Kylian Mbappe of PSG, who managed to score a whole 27 goals! Mbappe was a star striker in the Ligue Un, even attracting teams like Real Madrid in the summer transfer window. Mbappe has stated that he is thinking of extending his contract at PSG and waiting a few more years to go to teams like Real Madrid, even though PSG is his dream team.
Italian League/Serie A
The Italian League/Serie A was won by Inter Milan by a huge 12 point margin. Second place were Milan rivals AC Milan, while third place and fourth place were Atalanta and Juventus. Inter Milan dominated the league, scoring a massive 89 goals. The top scorer goes to Ronaldo, who was in Juventus at the time, having scored 29 goals in one season. Second place was Romelu Lukaku for Milan, scoring a total of 24 goals.
Spanish League/La Liga
The winners of the La Liga were Atletico Madrid with a total of 83 points. Most people knew Atletico were going to win because of their new signing, Yannick Carrasco. Atletico Madrid won by a total of two points ahead of their bitter rival Real Madrid. Messi scored the most goals at a total of 30 goals with Barcelona, with Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno close behind with 23 goals. Third and fourth place were Karim Benzema for Real Madrid and Luis Suarez with Atlético Madrid.
German League/Bundesliga:
The winner of the Bundesliga was Bayern Munich, who won by a landslide of 13 points. Second place was RB Leipzig, just ahead of Borussia Dortmund in third. This was Bayern Munich’s 9th Bundesliga win in a row. If Bayern Munich keep their first place position next season, it will be their 10th Bundesliga title in a row.
Nevertheless, the top scorer was Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, scoring an immense 41 goals! Andres Silvá from RB Leipzig was second place, scoring 13 goals less than Robert Lewandowski, and third place was Eriling Haaland, scoring 27 goals for Borussia Dortmund, one less than Andres Silvá.
Summary of 2021
Overall, it was a great and enjoyable season to watch because of some exciting and action-packed matches. If you didn’t know, the Puskas Award, an award for the best goal, was given to Erik Lamela, while the Ballon D'or, an award for the best player of the year, was given to Lionel Messi. Unfortunately, this year experienced interruptions from the pandemic, such as the postponement of the 2020 Euros.