Bayern's treble and Maradona’s death make waves amid Covid threat

It's been an eventful and topsy turvy year in the world of football.

With Covid halting football in the middle of the year, the beautiful game found a way to prevail and is now in full flow.

Here, The Business Standard takes a look at the most memorable moments from world football in 2020. 

Maradona bids adieu

On November 25, the sporting world was shocked to its core as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Diego Armando Maradona passed away at 60. 

As tributes from former and current players poured in, the world mourned the loss of one of its biggest sporting icons. 

Despite the Covid-19 outbreak, thousands took to the streets of Argentina and Italy to mourn their hero who had won the 1986 World Cup with Argentina and three Serie A titles with Napoli.

Days later, the Napoli stadium was renamed as the Diego Maradona stadium.

While Maradona suffered from cocaine addiction later on in his career and obesity after his retirement, there is no doubt that he left a lasting impression on the world of football and has inspired the likes of Lionel Messi. 

The Reds end their 30-year wait

Liverpool started off last season breaking record after record and looked set on winning the league unbeaten and accumulating the most points ever. 

While they stuttered to a few defeats in the second half of the season and the Covid break stymied their momentum, there was only going to be one Premier League winner last season.

It was really an all-round team effort with their captain Jordan Henderson becoming a key cog in the wheel and coach Jurgen Klopp finding more match-winners as the season progressed. 

Despite injuries to key players like Virgil van Dijk, the Merseyside club are Premier League title favourites and sit at the top of the table this season.

This season, Liverpool look set to aim for both the Premier League and the Champions League and could achieve that feat. 

Euros and Copa America postponed

In a year that was supposed to be full of international football with the Euros and the Copa America, Covid-19 put a halt to all footballing action around the world. 

The top five football leagues in Europe had to either be suspended or ended prematurely and the Uefa Champions League and Europa League had to be postponed and rescheduled. 

That meant that the May-August period had league football back and there could be no window made for the Euros and Copa.

They have been postponed to 2021 and further adds to an already congested football schedule.

Even the World Cup qualifiers are having to be crammed in and face a race against time to be done before the 2022 Qatar World Cup. 

Spain thrash Germany 6-1

One may say it was a long time coming, but it was still a shocking result, as Joachim Loew's Germany crumbled to a shock 6-1 defeat at the hands of Spain in the Uefa Nations League Group Stage match. 

There were signs of things going stale under Loew, who has not been getting the desired results for the past few years, after the success of the 2014 World Cup.

But so far, the German football federation seems hell-bent on sticking with Loew and expects him to turn things around for a dressing room in visible disharmony. 

While this was not in a bigger stage such as the Euros or the World Cup, the signs are there that things have to change somewhere for Germany's fortunes to change. 

On the other hand, it showed that Spain are starting to find their feet and team combo under Luis Enrique and they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future again. 

Football without fans

The world is still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic with schools and offices still closed and people learning and working from home.

While football has returned to the pitch, players are having to play in empty stadiums and live in bio-secure bubbles to ensure they don't get the virus.

The Bundesliga was the first among the top five European leagues to return but it just didn't feel the same without fans. 

Although artificial crowd cheering and ambience has been added in many big stadiums, the lack of fans and the electric atmospheres have been missing. 

The quality of football, however, has not been disappointing and in fact, that has taken away the home advantage quite a bit.  

A small number of fans are now being allowed to make a return in some select stadiums for Premier League and Champions League games with social distancing being maintained and masks being worn

Messi vs Bartomeu

This had the potential to be the biggest transfer in the history of football as Lionel Messi had sent in a transfer request to Barcelona due to mismanagement from the board.

The board president Josep Bartomeu was eventually obliged to resign and new presidential elections are set to take place in February 2021. 

Messi had become fed up with the poor transfer activity in the club and had been wanting to leave the entire season and reached boiling point when Barca lost 8-2 in the Champions League.

Now in his latest interview, Messi has stated that he will think about his future only after the season is done with clubs like PSG and Manchester City hovering.

Messi says he's happy now under the new coach Ronald Koeman but if Messi does not renew his contract, he will be a free agent in the summer of 2021.

Bayern Flick switch on and dominate

It was looking like a season to forget for Bayern Munich under Nico Kovac, but all that changed once assistant manager Hansi Flick took over after Kovac was sacked. 

They went on a winning run after the resumption of the Bundesliga, that saw them win the title. 

The Bavarians then went on to win the German Cup and finally, dominated all comers to win the Champions League and grab their second treble in history. 

The results led to their striker Robert Lewandowski breaking the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly in the Fifa Best awards and win the coveted award. 

Bayern have continued to churn out results in the Bundesliga and the Champions League this season and are favourites to win both this season again. 

Upsets galore in congested schedule

With Covid having an impact on the schedule and teams not getting a proper preseason, the top five leagues have seen plenty of upsets.

From Aston Villa defeating Liverpool 7-2 to Real Madrid almost being knocked out of the Champions League Group Stages, there have been plenty of shockers this season so far.

The upsets have led to the top five leagues having teams other than the usual suspects at the top of the table.

The Milan clubs are at the top of the Serie A with Juve off to a slow start under new manager Andrea Pirlo.

PSG, after a great run in the Champions League, are also not in top form in the league and Lyon are top of Ligue 1.

La Liga is being dominated by Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad were in top-spot too as Real Madrid and Barcelona go through a transitional period.  

Defending Bundesliga and Premier League champions Bayern and Liverpool are top of their respective leagues but that has come with some mixed results and we can expect plenty more upsets along the way.

Covid doesn't stop clubs from spending

While the likes of Real Madrid and PSG had quiet transfer windows by their standards, football clubs in Europe still managed to splash the cash and plenty of big transfers were made.

The biggest example of that was Chelsea, who spent in excess of 200 million pounds to almost overhaul their starting XI and make big money signings. 

That, however, came on the back of having funds due to a transfer ban in the previous summer. 

Kai Havertz (80 million euros + 20 million in add-ons) became the most expensive player in this transfer window but clubs like Manchester City and Arsenal also spent big on players like Ruben Dias (68 million euros) and Thomas Partey (50 million euros).

Clubs like Leicester, Wolves and Aston Villa were also very active in the transfer market, but the club that perhaps spent the most wisely was Tottenham Hotspur as they bought and loaned players for smart prices that are making them a much better team from last season.