Amazing moments of 2023

The sporting year 2023 began on a solemn note as Brazilian legend Pele was buried January 3, after a procession in Santos, Brazil.

A private funeral was held for his family members on the ninth floor of a vertical cemetery overlooking Santos stadium.

Nicknamed O Rei, Pele, regarded as the world’s greatest footballers ever. remains the only player to have won three World Cups and was named FIFA Player of The Century in 2000.

In February, Real Madrid clinched their fifth FIFA Club World Cup title and first since winning three-in-a-row in 2016, 2017 and 2018 after they defeated Al Hilal 5-3 in the final in Rabat, Morocco.

A brace from Vinicius Jnr and Federico Valverde and another strike from Karim Benzema saw Real Madrid become the most successful club in the history of the tournament.

In June, Premier League champions Manchester City claimed a first continental treble, becoming the eighth European side to do so and just the second from England — after neighbours Manchester United in 1998-99 — after edging Italian side, Inter Milan, by a lone goal in the Champions League final at their 13th attempt.

Pep Guardiola’s side became the sixth English club to win it after Liverpool (six times), Manchester United (three times), Chelsea and Nottingham Forest (both twice) and Aston Villa.

In winning last season’s Premier League, the Cityzens also completed a hat-trick of titles, matching the feat achieved by Huddersfield Town (1923-26), Arsenal (1932-35), Liverpool (1981-84) and Manchester United (1998-2001 & 2006-09).

In Italy, Victor Osimhen helped Napoli lift their first Serie A title in 33 years. The Nigerian scored 26 Serie A goals last season, breaking George Weah’s record as the highest-scoring African in the Italian topflight in the process.

The former Lille and Wolfsburg striker also became the first African to ever win the AIC award, joining the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrea Pirlo, Cristiano Ronaldo and last year’s winner Rafael Leao as recipients of the prize.

The AIC award followed his eighth-place finish in the 2023 men’s Ballon d’Or. He is also up for the 2023 International Federation of Football History and Statistics Men’s World Best Player of The Year.

The 24-year-old capped a wonderful year with the CAF Player of The Year award Dec 11, the first a Nigerian footballer will win it in 24 years.

In July, the FIFA Women’s World Cup was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand and it will go down as one of the best in the history of women’s football.

Reigning champions Spain won the title for the first time world after defeating England 1-0 in Sydney, Australia. They join Germany as the only countries to have won the men and women’s FIFA World Cups.

The tournament also saw new records set and farewells made.

Africa also recorded substantial growth at the World Cup, exceeding expectations. South Africa and Morocco qualified for the knockout stages for the first time, along with Nigeria, it was the first time three African sides advanced from the group stage.

After Europe, which had eight nations in the last 16, Africa was the next best-represented continent.

Morocco also became the first Arab country to qualify for the Women’s World Cup. The team also includes Nouhaila Benzina, the first Muslim woman wearing a hijab to play at the World Cup.

Forty-year-old Nigeria’s Onome Ebi became the oldest player at the Women’s World Cup after she made two cameo appearances for the Super Falcons in their group games against Australia and the Republic of Ireland, while duo Marta Vieira da Silva from Brazil and the USA’s Megan Rapinoe retired from international football.

The month of August saw top European clubs splash hundreds of millions to bolster their squads for the new season.

Premier League clubs Chelsea and Arsenal both paid a whopping £100m plus add-ons to sign Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice from Brighton and West Ham respectively. But the best summer signing was Jude Bellingham, who Real Madrid paid Borussia Dortmund £88m plus £25.6m add-ons to become the latest Galactico.

So far this season (as at the time of filing this report), the 20-year-old English midfielder has 21-goal contributions (16 goals and five assists) in 19 games across all competitions.

Also in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid and Manchester City finished their respective groups with a 100 per cent record. They were joined in the round of 16 by Barcelona, Napoli, Dortmund, PSG, Arsenal, Porto, Bayern, Copenhagen, PSV, Napoli, Real Sociedad, Atletico, Lazio and Inter while the likes of Manchester United, Sevilla, AC Milan and Newcastle United and dropped to the Europa League.

In athletics, Tobi Amusan emerged as the winner of the Diamond League trophy for an astonishing third consecutive time in September. She became the second woman in Diamond League history after Dawn Nelson-Harper to win a hat-trick of 100m hurdles titles.

Amusan, with a time of 12.33secs, won a fiercely contested final to shut her critics after a disappointing outing at the World Championship in Budapest, where she placed sixth.

The 26-year-old was left traumatised in the build-up to Budapest after she was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for missing her whereabouts tests.

In Basketball, D’Tigress clinched a fourth straight FIBA Women’s AfroBasket title, leaving no doubt about them being the most dominant African team of the last six years.

Nigeria achieved the feat with a relatively unknown squad and in the process, Rena Wakama became the first female head coach to win a Women’s AfroBasket title.

Even more impressive was the fact that Nigeria extended their winning streak to 24-0 in Africa, dating back to the third-place win of the 2015 Women’s AfroBasket in Yaounde, when they beat Angola 65-55. The last team to beat D’Tigress (71-70) was Cameroon on October 2, 2015.

Super Falcons and Barcelona striker was crowned the 2023 CAF Women’s Player of The Year in Marrakech, Morocco, the sixth time she’ll be clinching it.

The 29-year-old was voted the best African women’s footballer in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022, before her record-extending feat Dec 11.

In table tennis, Quadri Aruna triumphed in the men’s finals at the 2023 ITTF African Championships in Tunis.

The three-time Olympian clinched his eighth African table tennis title in dominant style overcoming Ahmed Saleh of Egypt. The Nigerian top seed retained his men’s singles title with a convincing 4-0 (11-2, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6).

South Africa also lifted their fourth Rugby World Cup to become the most successful team in the tournament’s history, while Australia won record-extending titles in the men and women’s Cricket World Cups.

Tributes flooded in from the world of football following the death of Sir Bobby Charlton in October at the age of 86. He was a key member of England’s victorious 1966 World Cup team and also enjoyed great success at club level with Manchester United, who became the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968.

Two years after suffering a humiliating defeat by a record 19-9 margin at Whistling Straits, Europe regained the Ryder Cup from the United States in impressive fashion at Marco Simone with an unprecedented 4-0 whitewash in the opening foursomes and never loosened their grip, with Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland living up to their star billing.

Spain’s victory over England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney was overshadowed by the actions of Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales, who celebrated his nation’s victory by grabbing his crotch while standing alongside Spain’s Queen Letizia and 16-year-old Princess Infanta Sofia in a VIP box and then kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy presentation ceremony. Hermoso said the kiss was not consensual and after a long-running saga, which included his mother staging a brief hunger strike, Rubiales resigned and was banned by FIFA from all football-related activity for three years.

As an era came to an end, another began. Youthful, vivacious, and every bit as gritty as a young Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz chased, hit, smashed, and volleyed every ball he could get his racket to all year round, ending it locked in a battle for the top spot on the charts with the behemoth that is Novak Djokovic.

While Novak Djokovic finished the year as number one, Alcaraz provided a glimpse of the future along the way. When the pair battled each other at the Wimbledon final, the youngster came out on top, beating the old pro in five sets.

American Coco Gauff, 19, broke through to win her first major title on home soil at the U.S. Open last fall.

“Winning the U.S. Open was a crazy feeling – one that I had never felt before and I don’t think I will ever feel again,” Gauff, now ranked No.3, said after the amazing feat.

Marketa Vondrousova defeated favourite Ons Jabeur in straight sets to make history as the first unseeded women’s singles champion at Wimbledon. The Czech player took advantage of a nervous performance from Jabeur to claim a 6-4 6-4 victory, just eight months after being ranked outside the world’s Top 100.

A city can so often go decades without witnessing a win that would reverbrate through its very core. Denver, host of their own NBA franchise, the Denver Nuggets, since 1967, had witnessed championships move from town to town, never stopping for a moment’s rest in a place that had craved it for so long. That, though, changed in 2023, when, led by Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets beat Miami Heat in the Finals to secure their first-ever title, after beating LeBron James’ LA Lakers in the NBA Conference finals.

No one rose to Max Verstappen’s level in 2022 as the Dutchman raced clear of his competition to a second consecutive title. His victory in 2023 was even more impressive; not only did he collect his third successive championship trophy, he did so by winning 19 of the 22 races on offer! By doing so, the youngster created a new record for most wins in a season and helped his team, Red Bull Racing, to yet another Constructors’ Championship.