10 shocks of world football in 2016

In 2016, world football witnessed many big shocks such as Leicester City winning the Premier League, Portugal winning Euro 2016... Let's take a look at the 10 biggest shocks.

Leicester City won the Premier League

The odds for Leicester City to win the Premier League before the season were as high as 5000/1 (bet 1 to win 5000). However, Ranieri and his team have taken fans from one surprise to another.

Leicester City shocked with Premier League title.

It is hard to believe that a club with such little potential like Leicester City has such stability and courage in the Premier League title race. They won a series of 1-0 victories in the final stages of the season, thereby leaving their competitors far behind. Leicester City finished the season with 81 points, 10 points more than the second-placed team Arsenal. To this day, many experts still consider Leicester's championship victory to be the biggest shock in Premier League history.

Portugal won Euro 2016

Portugal finished the Euro 2016 group stage in disappointment with three draws against Hungary, Iceland and Austria. However, they showed incredible composure in the knockout stages and stumbled through to the final.

Portugal's "fairy tale" was even more unbelievable when they lost C. Ronaldo for most of the final match, when this player was injured. However, Portugal still knew how to overcome difficulties to defeat host France with the only goal of Eder in extra time. This is the first major tournament championship in the history of Portuguese football.

Coach Zidane unexpectedly helped Real Madrid succeed

After Rafa Benitez was fired, Real Madrid's board of directors made a risky decision to appoint Zidane, a coach with no previous coaching experience. However, step by step, the French strategist conquered everything.

He led Real Madrid to the Champions League title after just a few months in charge (something not every coach can do). After that, Los Blancos won the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup. In addition, coach Zidane broke the club record of having 37 unbeaten matches in all competitions.

Coach Sam Allardyce was sacked from the England team after only 67 days.

Coach Sam Allardyce was fired after 67 days leading the England team

After England were eliminated from Euro 2016, coach Roy Hodgson resigned. Veteran general Sam Allardyce was appointed to the "hot seat" with the hope of leading the Three Lions to future success.

However, Big Sam only held office for 67 days. He was fired by the English Football Association after the British press exposed the scandal of "colluding" with a businessman (impersonated by a reporter) to circumvent transfer rules in the Premier League. In addition, this 62-year-old coach also "slipped his tongue" when speaking ill of the English Football Association as well as his predecessor Roy Hodgson. Coach Sam Allardyce's scandal has really shaken the English football world for a long time.

Brazil won the Olympics for the first time

The Brazilian Olympic team has always been highly rated in every Olympic Games but they have always been unlucky to win the championship. However, after many tears, the Samba football team finally got to enjoy the feeling of winning the gold medal at the Olympics. Witnessing the image of Neymar gritting his teeth and biting the medal in tears, people can understand how much Brazil has waited.

Messi retires and returns to Argentina national team

Immediately after the defeat in the 2016 Copa America final, Messi suddenly announced his retirement from the national team. El Pulga's "unbelievable" decision shocked the whole of Argentina. Many fans took to the streets to protest, and even the country's President had to speak up to call for Messi to return. Fortunately, El Pulga later changed his mind.

Messi decided to retire from the Argentina national team after the defeat in the 2016 Copa America final.

MU breaks world record to recruit Pogba

With the desire to return, MU did not spare money to shop. In particular, they broke the world record to recruit Paul Pogba for a fee of 89 million pounds (not including additional fees). That number surprised many people when they thought it was too high compared to Pogba's "real value". Because of this "super-huge" transfer fee, Pogba was under a lot of pressure at Old Trafford.

Nice, Leipzig "rebel" in domestic league

It seems that Leicester City’s “fairy tale” is a source of encouragement for many “underdogs”. In Bunesliga, Leipzig led the league for a long time, before giving up the top spot to Bayern Munich in the last 2 rounds. Meanwhile, Nice have left behind PSG and Monaco to take sole possession of the top spot in Ligue 1.

Chapecoense Club's tragic plane crash

The plane carrying Chapecoense FC crashed while flying to Colombia to attend the Copa Sudamericana final. Most of the club's members died (only 3 survived because they could not go to Colombia). This was a tragic accident in world football, it reminded many people of the plane disasters of MU or Torino FC in the past. Afterwards, Chapecoense FC was awarded the "consolation" Copa Sudamericana title (at the request of their opponent Atletico Nacional).

Many members of Chapecoense Club died after the plane crash.

Chinese clubs "expand" in the transfer market

In January 2016, Chinese clubs shocked the football world by continuously recruiting stars such as Ramires, Hulk, Jackson Martinez, Alex Teixera, Lavezzi... with huge salaries. In fact, 4 transfer records in this tournament were broken within just 1 month. Not only that, recently, Shanghai SIPG Club continued to shock when spending 60 million pounds to recruit Chelsea midfielder Oscar.

According to Dantri