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18 Seb Vettel kept winning everything
The German F-1 genius won his fourth title in succession, helping his Red Bull
team to deliver a fourth consecutive constructor’s championship. Was
nevertheless booed by some fans bored of his dominance, which seems unfair,
and he enraged his team-mate Mark Webber by defying team orders not to pass
him in Malaysia. But the ice-cool Vettel took that, like everything else, in
his stride.
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17 Mike Tyson released his autobiography
Iron Mike’s book was one of the highlights of the publishing year in sports,
and was packed with juicy revelations and colourful language. Among the most
sensational, in a strong field, was his admission that he had fought while
high on drugs. Describing how he gloried in the portrayal of himself as a
psycho, a beast, white America’s worst nightmare, it is a cracking,
disturbing read brilliantly executed.
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16 Chris Froome won the Tour De France
The Kenyan-born British cyclist followed Sir Bradley Wiggins by winning road
cycling’s greatest and most revered prize. His bid got off to a nervy start
when he crashed in the neutralised section of the first stage on the isle of
Corsica. He won the general classification with a time of 83 hours, 56
minutes and 40 seconds. He was also King of the Mountains for six stages.
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15 Arjen Robben came with a late, late show
It was an all-German affair at Wembley in May: the people’s champion, Borussia
Dortmund, took on the evil empire of Bayern Munich as Germany surpassed
Spain as Europe’s top club-footballing nation. Key Dortmund forward Mario
Götze, who would join Bayern Munich in the summer, was injured, but the
Black and Yellows were holding their own at 1-1… until the dislikeable
Dutchman popped up with a minute to spare, winning the trophy with a weak
left-foot shot.
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14 David Ginola showed us a nice gesture
David Ginola might not have been alone in his assessment of BT broadcaster
Jake Humphrey, but at least viewers who share his opinion of the anchorman
(with a silent ‘W’, if David is to be believed) are not making their
feelings known via gesture on live TV. It was extra harsh that Humphrey
himself had to be the one to apologise for it!
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13 David Moyes drank deep from that poisoned chalice
The hardest possible act to follow in football: taking over Manchester United
after Sir Alex Ferguson. Moyes has had a few decent results against other
big teams and in Europe, but delivering the League title now looks seriously
unlikely. The sense is growing that the team he inherited might have had
their day – not that this will save his job if he cannot produce some
silverware next season, if not this.
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12 Gareth Bale became the most expensive player in the world
Nobody does tedious transfer sagas like the North London clubs, and this time
it was Spurs who were involved in a seemingly endless to-and-fro with a
Spanish giant. Their Welsh wing wizard eventually joined Real Madrid for (it
is understood) £85.3million. Had a disappointing El Clásico debut, but
things have picked up for him and he has already scored a hat-trick. Is he
worth it? Time will tell.
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11 Mo Farah did the double double
The first man to hold the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m titles as well as the
World 5,000m and 10,000m titles, Mo Farah was described as “Britain’s
greatest ever athlete” by BBC commentator Brendan Foster. Pretty hard to
argue with that assessment. A Knighthood surely awaits this time, which
should please many who felt that Mo was short-changed with his CBE this
year.
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10 Tom Daley comes out as gay in You Tube video
It can’t be easy coming out as a 19-year-old no matter what your status in
life, but as one of the most famous and most popular athletes in the
country, Tom Daley had more to worry about than most. He released a
typically charming and honest You Tube video saying that he was in a
relationship with a man and, happily, received all-but universal support.
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9 Mitchell Johnson rediscovered his MoJo
How England cricket fans used to love to bait Mitch. “He bowls to the left… he
bowls to the right… that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shi—” Well, you
get the idea. But, perhaps revitalised by a horrible moustache, a new
Mitchell Johnson has emerged, and he is frankly terrifying. Blew England
away in the first two Tests with 95mph bowling and, although England’s
batsmen did better against him in the third Test, the damage had been done.
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8 Luis Suarez gets peckish
He’d done the racist incident, robbing Ghana of a World Cup semi-final,
refusing to shake hands with his opponent and multiple cheating rows, but
with Luis Suarez, there’s always something else around the corner. Back in
April, it was a ten-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. What
will 2014 bring for Liverpool’s evil genius? When not being a rotter, has
played some sublime football this year: maybe he has turned the corner?
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7 Justin Rose won the US Open
No England player had won a Major since Nick Faldo in 1996, and no England
player had won the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970, but a wonderful
display from Justin Rose changed all that back in June. Rose triumphed by
two shots at of Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, defying bad weather and
Phil Mickelson, who eagled the final round tenth to take the lead. But Rose
was not to be denied and hit back with birdies on the 12th and 13th before
holding his nerve for a famous win.
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6 Stuart Broad wouldn’t walk
No incident in cricket divided the public or the media more this year. Stuart
Broad edged the ball at Trent Bridge, it clanged off Brad Haddin’s gloves
and was caught by slip, making the edge seem bigger than it actually was.
Broad stayed put and Aleem Dar gave him not out. The Aussies had used up all
their reviews, but there was no end to the depth of their indignation. Some
world class hypocrisy was displayed, with Darren Lehman calling on the
Aussie public to give Broad a roasting in the return series Down Under. They
did so with relish.
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5 Warren Gatland masterminded Lions victory
The Lions arguably had a bit of luck in the First Test when Kurtley Beale
missed two late penalty opportunities for Australia (See number 75), and
when the Aussies won the second game, it felt like the momentum had turned.
With tour skipper Sam Warburton and 2009 captain Paul O’Connell both
injured, Gatland took the bold decision to omit the experienced centre Brian
O’Driscoll, going with a Welsh midfieldpairing of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan
Davies. Roberts scored a try as the Lions won 41-16, the most points by a
Lions side in a test match.
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4 Sachin Tendulkar retired
People who say “no player is bigger than the game” clearly don’t know much
about Sachin, India and cricket. A two Test match series was arranged at
short notice for November, allowing Sachin to play matches 199 and 200 of a
magnificent career. The West Indies were the perfect guests, rolling over
without fuss in both matches, but sadly Sachin could not make a century in
his final innings, falling for 74. Darren Sammy, who took a very sharp slip
catch to dismiss him off the bowling of Shane Shillingford, must have
worried that he might not get out of the Wankhede Stadium in one piece.
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3 AP McCoy rode his 4,000th winner
The unglamorous surrounds of Towcester were witness to one of the most
astonishing feats of endurance in sport this November when AP McCoy,
unquestionably the greatest jockey who ever booted home a winner that had no
right to score, notched up his 4,000th victory. He’s broken pretty much
every bone in his body, he’s been doing it for two decades, and still the
will to win remains as fierce as ever. A living legend of sport.
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2 Sir Alex Ferguson retired
They say we will never see his like again and, with Alan Pardew at Newcastle
being, ridiculously, the Premier League’s second-longest serving boss with a
mere three years under his belt, it’s surely true. Sir Alex finally called
it a day in May after 26 years at Man United, during which time he won 38
trophies, including two Champions League titles, terrified countless
journalists, and established himself as the greatest British manager of all
time. Impossible to imagine any manager ever shaping a club around himself
in the same way again.
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1 Andy Murray won Wimbledon
“Fred Perry was the last British man to win Wimbledon, all the way back in
1936”. For most of the ensuing years, it felt like this would be one
sporting record that would remain for ever. But brilliantly, heroically,
gloriously, Andy Murray ended that hoodoo: and he it did it in style,
beating the mighty Novak Djokovic 3-0 to send the nation into raptures in
the greatest moment of the sporting year.
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