The Athletic’s review of 2025: MVP McTominay, the ever-dutiful Gianni and Ronaldo's red reprieve
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:The Athletic UK Football Writers
Biggest surprise of the football year? Most predictable moment? Biggest injustice? Best quote? And a few predictions for 2026...
Whether it was underdog heroics in World Cup qualifying, England winning Euro 2025, or United States President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino becoming best buds, international football played a big role in 2025 — and a men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico is just 165 days away.
In the club game, there were some honest truths from managers, incredible free kicks, the rise of long throws, and shock wins.
But away from the pitch, we could not look back on 2025 without touching on a more serious and tragic note — the death of Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva.
Here, Nick Miller, Caoimhe O’Neill, Megan Feringa, Stuart James and Carl Anka review the year.
Describe football in 2025 in 25 words (or fewer)
James: Wimbledon, 1988. You can’t snap opponents like Vinnie Jones did, but this long-throw obsession is wild.
Anka: Twelve months of “Absolute Cinema” as the top level of the sport further transforms it into a content delivery machine, overshadowing everything else.
Feringa: Blissfully chaotic at its best, pining for something lost at its worst. Also trigger alert: long throws.
Miller: I don’t think I’ll remember much actual football, but I do remember being quite tired and my brain being hammered for most of the year.
Michael Kayode, master of long throws (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
The best footballing achievement of 2025 was…
Miller: This choice is significantly influenced by the fact that I was there to see it happen, but Cape Verde qualifying for the World Cup. At the time, only Iceland had done it with a smaller population (Curacao have superseded them), but the unfiltered and uncomplicated joy in the stadium that day is something I’ll never forget.
O’Neill: Sunderland making it back to the Premier League through the play-offs in the most majestic, last-gasp way. And then actually being a really good top-tier side. It was a long eight years out of the top flight, which included four weary seasons in League One. But .
Feringa: All of us making it through the 2026 World Cup draw in one piece and with most of our sanity intact.
James: Crystal Palace beating Manchester City to win the FA Cup (the first major trophy in their 164-year history) was pretty special — huge credit to their manager Oliver Glasner and the players. But the most magical thing about that day by far was the reaction of the Palace supporters at the final whistle. People, young and old, sobbing in a mixture of disbelief and joy. It was genuinely heart-warming — football touching the soul.
Anka: The Lionesses winning their second European Championship title. England entered the tournament in a transitional state, battled through tricky turbulence in three of their five matches, but still emerged victorious. In the 21st century, the tournament has been won either by Germany or a team managed by Sarina Wiegman. The Dutchwoman is a brilliant manager who is constantly asking us to reassess what we mean by “Good leadership”. She has excellent taste in music, too.
Another triumph for England and Sarina Wiegman (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Hero of the year
Miller: Scott McTominay. One of football’s great glow-ups — from being a solid, arguably slightly boring, taken for granted 7/10 Manchester United midfielder, to title-winning, hard-partying, cigar-smoking, Pope-meeting, bicycle-kick-scoring, Serie A MVP.
O’Neill: It is always Marta. This year, next year, forever. Oh, and Troy Parrott.
Feringa: Any hero on the pitch is someone else’s villain. But Michelle Agyemang really wore that cape in Switzerland: 138 minutes, two goals, twice seizing England from the clutches of “reigning champions dumped out” headlines. To accomplish it while being just 19 years old and at her first major tournament with England was sensational, not to mention against a backdrop of racist abuse aimed at her team-mate Jess Carter.
James: Stephen Crean, the 61-year-old Nottingham Forest fan who courageously intervened during a mass stabbing on a train from Doncaster to London last month. Crean had been making his way home from Forest’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United at the City Ground when he was caught up in the train attack in Huntingdon, which led to a man being charged with 11 counts of attempted murder.
Forest fans gave Crean a rapturous ovation when he returned to the City Ground for their home game against Leeds United. “It meant the world to me. I could see people clapping, applauding and I just thank them so much,” he said. “I would have been happy with a few quid to go down the pub. I didn’t expect anything.”
Anka: The two biggest games of McTominay’s 2025 saw him score bicycle kicks — one to help Napoli win a league title, the other to help secure Scotland’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
I undervalued his talent at Manchester United, and I have spent the year happily eating humble pie while applauding his success.
Also, a quick word on Calvin Bassey — because I don’t think there’s a centre-back on the planet who is having more fun in the men’s game. The Fulham and Nigeria defender had good moments in 2025 as well as bad ones, but he’s always found a way to crack a smile, cheer up his team-mates and remind us all that football is meant to be a laugh.
Miller: It won’t do to overcomplicate these things, so it’s a toss-up between two.
Either Gianni Infantino, who has seemingly spent the year sleeping in a little bed in the Oval Office, like a particularly dutiful dog, hopping up now and then to hand Donald Trump something shiny.
Or Jim Ratcliffe, for… well, claiming to understand the needs of the fans while jacking up ticket prices, making hundreds redundant while squandering millions himself, his undisguised contempt for Manchester United Women — take your pick really.
James: Infantino. Where to start? The farce of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. Where to end? The absolute scandal of ticket prices at the 2026 World Cup. And there’s plenty in between, too.
Anka: If a series of ghosts had visited Sir Jim Ratcliffe over the cold Christmas nights, it would do us all the world of good.
The ever-dutiful Gianni Infantino with Donald Trump (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Most surprising moment of the year
Miller: Troy Parrott’s miracle hat-trick against Hungary. For not one minute did I think that the Republic of Ireland were going to come back and win that game, but when they did, my word: I can’t remember the last time I so enjoyed a moment for a team with whom I have no emotional connection.
O’Neill: The fallout after Mary Earps released her book or Arsenal Women winning the Champions League. And not forgetting Burna Boy and Sarina Wiegman linking up on stage at England’s Euro 2025 victory parade. That was iconic.
Feringa: Gotham’s victory in the NWSL Championship. Winning it two seasons ago as the No 6 seed — a league-record low — was one thing. But lifting the trophy again two years on? This time as the No 8 seed? That’s silly script stuff that no one believes in until it happens.
James: Well, I certainly didn’t expect Chelsea to turn over Paris-Saint Germain 3-0 in the Club World Cup final in New Jersey in July. The way Liverpool’s 2025-26 season has unravelled, including Mohamed Salah’s outburst, was another big surprise. And who could have predicted that Sunderland would not just return to the Premier League but make a real splash. From a personal perspective, Snoop Dogg coming on board at Swansea City as a minority owner was a surreal moment. If only he could play right-back.
Mohamed Salah’s outburst headlined a difficult start to the season for Liverpool (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
Miller: Chloe Kelly scoring the winning penalty for England at Euro 2025. Even though she had missed a penalty a few days earlier (before tucking in the rebound), there was absolutely no chance she was missing that one. She seems to enjoy those moments of crushing pressure: she is, in the nicest possible way, a freak.
O’Neill: Robbie Williams singing a duet with Nicole Scherzinger at the World Cup draw. Pretty sure I predicted that a year ago…
Feringa: England winning Euro 2025. I really don’t know why everyone kept panicking. You don’t come back from the dead that many times and not win the whole lot. Also, Chloe Kelly is kind of inevitable at this point.
James: Ange Postecoglou and Nottingham Forest being a brief and unhappy marriage. It was, quite simply, never going to work at the City Ground, which makes you wonder why on earth Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s owner, and Postecoglou signed up for the 39-day eight-game farce that followed.
Anka: Chelsea winning the Conference League, and I mean that as a compliment. Chelsea are at their most compelling when they turn up and snatch the footballing dreams away from others (ask Bayern Munich fans about 2012), and they did so brilliantly in 2025.
We knew Chelsea would win, didn’t we? (Marco Steinbrenner/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
O’Neill: Not letting Robbie Williams sing Angels at the World Cup draw.
Feringa: The decision to simultaneously broadcast most of the Women’s Super League matches for the 2025-26 season at 12pm local time (and then 11.55am).
James: Steve Parish would like to answer this question. Back in July, the Crystal Palace chairman said that UEFA’s decision to remove his Premier League team from the Europa League, for breaching multi-club ownership rules, is “the biggest injustice in the history of football”.
UEFA’s judgement was harsh but I wouldn’t go that far.
Anyway, with my football pyramid hat on, I’ll always struggle with the idea that being runners-up in the National League, which is the gateway to the Football League, gets you nothing other than a play-off spot. Last season, York City finished 23 points above Oldham after 46 matches. But it was Oldham who won promotion.
Yeah, I know — everyone knows the rules at the start of the season. But still.
Anka: The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final in July saw Nigeria battle from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Morocco 3-2. However, they scored their first goal after the VAR decided Moroccan defender Nouhaila Benzina handled the ball inside the box, and before the VAR later overturned a penalty that was awarded to Morocco after they believed a possible handball from Nigeria’s Oluwatosin Demehin was accidental. The Confederation of African Football would later receive a formal complaint from Morocco’s federation, calling the match decisions “refereeing injustices”.
Cristiano Ronaldo had his suspension suspended (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
The best goal I saw
Miller: Not the best from a technical point of view, but by a distance my moment of the year was James Tarkowski’s stoppage-time equaliser in the final men’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, followed as it was by some fabulously undignified scenes from the Liverpool contingent and then a glorious, life-affirming singalong to I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues by the Everton fans that simply did not want to leave.
O’Neill: I wasn’t there to watch it live but it has to be the final Liverpool goal from the late, great and dearly missed Diogo Jota.
It came against Everton in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in April and proved to be the winner. It was so Jota. Off the bench and on to come up with the goods for Liverpool just when they needed him to. A weaving move and a wonderful finish at the Kop end.
Feringa: I was in the Spanish end for their Euro 2025 semi-final against Germany when Aitana Bonmati scored the winning goal in the dying moments of extra time. The celebrations were visceral.
Close second: Jack Grealish’s first for Everton against Crystal Palace. It was pretty grubby. But the limbs. I was convinced I’d be tumbling down the Hill Dickinson Stadium stands and taking at least four with me.
James: Paris Saint-Germain’s third goal in the Champions League final against Inter was glorious and felt almost symbolic in terms of how it represented their team, their way of playing, and their coach, Luis Enrique. Vitinha was effortlessly weaving beautiful patterns inside his own half before driving forward with the ball, Ousmane Dembele’s backheel was exquisite and then Desire Doue applied the coup de grace. Magnificent.
Josh Tymon’s volley, for Snoop’s Swansea against Oxford United, deserves a mention too. Postage stamp.
Anka: I prefer my Goal of the Month contenders to be long-range pingers rather than well-coordinated team goals so…
In real life? Amad’s edge-of-the-box volley to rescue a 2-2 draw for Manchester United against Nottingham Forest at the start of November. Bonus points for how Matthijs de Ligt dips his neck as it flies past him, as he rightfully understands the strike would have taken his head off.
Watching live on the telly? Declan Rice’s perfect free kick against Real Madrid. His continual growth and improvement since the 2019-20 season are remarkable.
Best quote
Miller:“To be really honest, every time we have a defeat like that, I’m going to be like that. I’m going to say sometimes I hate my players and sometimes I love my players. Sometimes I want to quit, sometimes I want to be here for 20 years.”
O’Neill: I joined Goal Diggers FC on their march to Wembley in May after the Football Association announced a ban on transgender women from women’s football. One of the people I met was Sammy Rees.
“I spent some time playing men’s football. But it really wasn’t my bag. I felt very uncomfortable and it was not the nicest environment. Then I joined Goal Diggers and I’ve never looked back. It’s changed my life completely. These people have such open hearts. Since coming out, football has been my escape. We (trans people) wake up every day to more disgusting news about us: people vilifying us, people questioning our identity and our existence.
“Football means that for two or three hours a week, I can switch my brain off. I can have a moment where I don’t care about the news. It’s my escape, and the fact that it’s trying to be taken away from us is not fair.”
Feringa:“Sometimes they kill off the main character.”
Ange Postecoglou doled out some dimes during his Tottenham Hotspur tenure, but this, after overseeing the Europa League final triumph against Manchester United, was very prescient.
Ange Postecoglou’s main character energy (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
James:“It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus.”
Surely Salah’s post-match bombshell at Leeds has to go straight in at No 1 in this category? Elite players just don’t say things like that.
“We are the worst team, maybe in the history of Manchester United. I know you (reporters) want headlines but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and change that. Here you go: your headlines.”
If only more managers showed that level of consideration to journalists.
Anka: Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy had a bumpy start to life in Scotland.
“People might think I’m an idealist as a person but not at all. I know exactly who I am and exactly where I want to go. And I know at this moment, yeah, my a** is burning! But stay strong and do what you need to do to be better.”
A bold prediction for 2026 that might just happen
Miller: Manchester United are going to be actively good — not just “good in comparison to the dreck they’ve served up before”. Actively good. I can feel it.
O’Neill: Liverpool do not reclaim their Premier League title but win the Champions League instead. The Republic of Ireland qualify for the World Cup and win their opening match. Tranmere Rovers somehow make the League Two play-offs and are promoted to League One. What do you mean, ‘It’s just me and John Aldridge manifesting all this’?
Feringa: Craig Bellamy will get Wales to the World Cup. Less prediction, more a burning prayer.
James: Donald Trump will lift the World Cup before the winning captain/Harry Kane* has the chance to do the same at MetLife Stadium on July 19.
*wishful thinking.
Anka: Noni Madueke will finally receive his Club World Cup winners’ medal.
