Football's biggest winners & losers of 2024: From Lionel Messi's Argentina and 'Neverlusen' to Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo

It might seem a little strange to make a player who suffered a serious ACL injury one of the 'winners' of 2024, but Rodri has still had a year well worth celebrating. If anything, Manchester City's slump since the Spaniard was sidelined in September has only made a mockery of those who questioned the midfielder's subsequent Ballon d'Or success.

He is, quite simply, the most influential player in the game today, the key cog in Pep Guardiola's winning machine that claimed a historic fourth consecutive Premier League title in May. Rodri also ran the show for Spain at Euro 2024 before being forced off at half-time in the final. "[He] is a perfect computer, who administers everything, the emotions, all the moments in a magisterial way," La Roja coach Luis de la Fuente said. "That’s just a great help for everyone."

In that sense, it was a delightful surprise to see such a team player win the ultimate individual accolade.

Kylian Mbappe's dream move has been something of a nightmare thus far. But perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. Maybe we should have seen this coming.

Mbappe never looked quite right during the European Championship in Germany, where he managed just one goal in five appearances for France. He was, of course, hindered by having to wear a protective mask after breaking his nose in his nation's tournament-opener against Austria, but that still didn't fully explain his sub-standard showings in Germany, and even he conceded that the campaign had been a "failure".

What's more, several former France internationals were claiming long before Mbappe left Paris Saint-Germain on an acrimonious free transfer that he had stagnated as a player. It's become obvious over the past few months, though, that Mbappe's problems are not merely physical or tactical. For the first time in his career, he's struggling mentally right now too, as underlined by his omission from the last two France squads amid a variety of vague and contradictory explanations.

Mbappe recently stated in his first interview with the French press for almost a year that "he's very happy" in Madrid, but he also acknowledged that he's presently dealing with a number of serious issues, on and off the field. It will, therefore, be fascinating to see if the real Mbappe returns in 2025.

Believe the hype: Lamine Yamal is the real deal. Countless other prodigies have understandably found 'The new Lionel Messi' label a burden too heavy to bear - but Yamal doesn't appear to feel pressure. The kid only turned 17 on July 13 - and yet the following day he went out and won the European Championship, teeing up Nico Williams for the opener in Spain's 2-1 win over England.

Everything we've seen from Yamal since (he's got more assists than any other player in La Liga this season) suggests he's only going to get better and better - which is just ludicrous. The kid brought homework with him to Germany is already one of the very best players in the world!

Jurgen Klopp will forever be a legend at Liverpool and he received a fittingly grand send-off at Anfield after sensationally stepping down as manager at the end of last season. In his subsequent public appearances, he's also looked rejuvenated, as fresh and as healthy as he's looked in years - which is hardly surprising given just how much time and effort he invested in putting the Merseysiders back on their perch.

However, the timing of Klopp's exit is now being questioned in some quarters, with the Liverpool side he constructed top of both the Premier League and the Champions League under Arne Slot, who some have suggested is actually making his predecessor look bad. That's nonsense, of course; Klopp's record with the Reds was remarkable, and he'd have undoubtedly had them flying this season too. But that's precisely why their current form might feel a little bittersweet.

Certainly, Klopp would be forgiven for privately cursing the fact that Manchester City went through their worst ever run of results under Pep Guardiola just a few months after he left Liverpool - and his spirits can hardly have been lifted by the bitter backlash at former clubs Mainz and Borussia Dortmund to his unexpected decision to take a lucrative but highly controversial job within Red Bull's footballing empire.

Klopp has explained that he simply didn't want to be a coach anymore and that tallies up, given he had already stated last season that he was running out of energy. In that sense, he couldn't have found a better gig. The Red Bull role should revitalise him and earn him an awful lot of money. But one cannot help but wonder if it'll also come with a few regrets.

Emma Hayes' status as one of the finest coaches in the women's game was already confirmed before 2024, but she took her legend to new levels over the past 12 months.

It was announced in late 2023 that Hayes would be leaving Chelsea to become the new coach of the United States women's national team, bringing the curtain down on of the most successful coaching stints in English football history. And while Hayes came up agonisingly short in her quest to deliver the Champions League for the Blues, she did oversee a fifth-successive Women's Super League title in west London.

Hayes' decision to stay with Chelsea until the end of the season meant that she only had a handful of preparation weeks ahead of leading the USWNT into the Olympics, but you would hardly have known it while watching them in France. Around a year on from suffering their earliest-ever World Cup exit, the U.S. - led by their 'Triple Espresso' front three of Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson - swept their opponents aside to claim the gold medal and re-establish themselves as the team to beat in the women's game.

Olympic rules mean that Hayes didn't receive a medal for her efforts, but she still ranks it as "the greatest moment" of her storied career.

Most neutrals have found it tough seeing Brazil struggle so badly in recent years. Plenty of international football fans see the Selecao as their second team. However, not even some of the finest players ever to wear the famous yellow shirt want to watch them right now. Ronaldinho even gave up on them before this year's calamitous Copa America campaign, which ended with Brazil bowing out in the quarter-finals.

"This is perhaps one of the worst teams in recent years, it has no respectable leaders, only average players for the majority," the World Cup winner wrote in an extraordinary Instagram post. "I've been following football since I was a kid, long before I thought about becoming a player, and I've never seen a situation as bad as this. Lack of love for the shirt, lack of grit and the most important of all: football."

Ronaldinho's 'resignation letter' from the Selecao's supporters' club may have been over the top, but there's no denying that there's something very wrong with the national team right now. Brazil have only lost once in 2024, but they've also only won four competitive games and are so fortunate that the expanded World Cup means that at least six South American teams will progress directly to the 2026 tournament, with the Selecao currently fifth in the standings.

Furthermore, while the results have been poor, the performances have been even worse. Despite boasting some of the most exciting attacking players in the world, including Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Raphinha and Endrick, Brazil have become boring - a shocking betrayal of the country's traditional values and the 'Joga Bonito' itself.

Coach Dorival Junior stated in September that he still fully expects his side to make the final in the New Jersey come July 2026. As it stands, though, they'll be lucky just to get out of the group stage.

Joe Cole has labelled Enzo Maresca as "the manager of the season so far", and while not everyone would agree, there's no denying that the Italian has had a truly remarkable 2024. After securing Leicester City an immediate return to the Premier League by winning last season's Championship, Maresca has now achieved something even more impressive by restoring order at Stamford Bridge.

People are obviously entitled to argue that Chelsea should be challenging for major honours anyway, given how much money they've spent over the past two years, but let's be honest, very few people expected Maresca to be the man to put the Blues back in a position to win the Premier League. Most experts gave him little chance of succeeding where far more experienced and revered coaches such as Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino had failed to keep the club's famously fickle owners happy.

Maresca never lost his cool amid the chaotic closing stages of the summer transfer window, when Chelsea were trying desperately to remove unwanted players from their bloated squad, while he also deserves the utmost credit for somehow keeping everyone happy - particularly top players like Christopher Nkunku, who are only really guaranteed game time in the Conference League.

Say what you will about Chelsea's owners and their recruitment policy, but Maresca has done an incredible job managing a club that Peter Crouch has pointed out looked "unmanageable" just a few months ago.

Whatever one's opinion on Cristiano Ronaldo, there's never been any denying his status as one of the finest players of all time. He's set records that will likely never be surpassed and has created a standard of physical excellence to which others now aspire. But that has only made his decline tougher to watch.

It was abundantly obvious after the 2022 World Cup that Ronaldo was finished at the highest level - which is why no top European team tried to sign him after Qatar - so he had no business being in the Portugal squad for Euro 2024.

Granted, he had carried his country for years but, in Germany, Pepe & Co. ended up having to carry him, as he missed chance after chance during the Seleccao's run to the quarter-finals. His mid-match meltdown after missing a penalty in the last-16 win over Slovenia was utterly extraordinary, the sight of a five-time Ballon d'Or winner bursting into tears undoubtedly one of the most emotional images of 2024.

Ronaldo, though, is unsurprisingly determined to ensure that his breakdown does not become the defining image of his final years as a footballer. He clearly intends to continue until the 2026 World Cup - and that Portugal coach Roberto Martinez is more than happy to let him do so, even though further indulgence of an individual's aims would be detrimental to the team's hopes of success.

Ronaldo's desire to continue rewriting the record breaks remains as strong as ever, and he is still scoring goals in Saudi Arabia (although, tellingly, not winning any major trophies, with Al-Nassr presently fourth in the Pro League). However, by playing on, he's not only hurting his country's hopes of future success, he's also damaging his own incredible legacy.

Despite never winning a major title, Gian Piero Gasperini had always been immensely proud of his achievements at Atalanta. The Bergamaschi were the best pound-for-pound team in the European game, a small provincial outfit constantly upsetting teams with far bigger budgets.

Still, Gasperini and everyone at Atalanta remained desperate for silverware, and it didn't look like they'd ever get it after being beaten by a poor Juventus team in last season's Coppa Italia final.

However, just a week later, La Dea finally got her hands on the trophy she so richly deserved - and in fittingly stunning fashion, with Atalanta inflicting a first defeat of the season upon Xabi Alonso's Bayern Leverkusen to win the Europa League.

Ademola Lookman dominated the post-match headlines thanks to his fantastic hat-trick in Dublin, but this was a team triumph, an inspirational success that showed that anything is possible if every single person at a club - in the dressing room, the boardroom, the academy and the accounting department - is working towards a common goal.

As Gasperini said afterwards, "Atalanta winning this trophy is one of those footballing fairy tales that very rarely happens, and it does show there’s still room for meritocracy in football."

And the very best thing is, they're not done yet. The Bergamaschi are presently top of Serie A - and given how well they're presently playing, you wouldn't back against them claiming a first-ever Scudetto at the end of the season. When it comes to Atalanta, anything really is possible.

The summer of 2024 was meant to be different for Barcelona. They were supposed to balance the books and avoid the registration drama that had marred previous transfer windows. And yet the only reason they managed to get their one star summer signing, Dani Olmo, playing - after two rounds of La Liga action - was a very timely injury to Andres Christensen that freed up some wiggle room within the Blaugrana's salary cap.

Obviously things are going reasonably well for Barcelona on the field, with Hansi Flick's team fighting for the Liga title and well on course to progress directly to the last 16 of the Champions League. However, their ongoing financial problems remain a serious cause for concern, with club president Joan Laporta continuing with his lever-pulling policy of mortgaging the club's future on present-day success.

Indeed, the mere fact that there are genuine fears that Olmo will be de-registered for the second half of the season tells you everything you need to know about the still-precarious nature of Barca's budget...

There's a saying in Brazil that 'some things only happen to Botafogo', and 2023 was a case in point. The Rio-based outfit were 13 points clear at the top of Serie A after a record-breaking first half of the season - but ended up finishing fifth after failing to win any of their final 11 games.

It was a historic bottle-job. Even Botafogo's long-suffering supporters found it tough to take, particularly those overexcited fans who got tattoos of the trophy before the team's catastrophic collapse.

"I hope this is a good lesson for everyone here," Diego Costa said just before the end of the season, "football makes you pay for mistakes."

However, while football can be a very, very cruel game - it can also be beautiful and utterly unpredictable. Just over 12 months on from Botafogo's bleakest hour, they are not only champions of Brazil, but of all of South America too, having lifted the Copa Libertadores for the first time in the club's history before ending their 29-year Serie A title hoodoo.

"What we achieved is so important," defender Alexander Barboza said. "The truth is that it's crazy." And he's not wrong. Some things really do only happen to Botafogo

Back in the summer of 2022, Chloe Kelly was the toast of English footballer. The winger had just scored the winning goal for the Lionesses as they won the European Championship on home soil, and at the age of 24, it seemed Kelly had the world at her feet.

But with Sarina Wiegman preparing to defend that Euros crown in 2025, there is a realistic chance that Kelly won't be part of the squad that travel to Switzerland as reigning champions. That is because the past 12 months have not gone to plan for the Manchester City star at club level, with Kelly having slipped down the pecking order to the extent that she has started just three matches for Gareth Taylor's side since the beginning of the campaign.

Reports suggest that a breakdown between Kelly and her club coach is to blame for her lack of opportunities, with her even left out of the starting XI when other fringe players have been rotated in for Champions League games against inferior opponents. An injury to Lauren Hemp has done little to improve Kelly's prospects at City either, despite the pair playing similar positions.

Kelly has, however, remained in Wiegman's plans through throughout 2024, though the Dutchwoman has conceded that if things don't change for the attacker through the second half of the campaign, then her place for the Euros will be jeopardised. A January transfer seems in the best interests for everyone as Kelly looks to put a forgettable year on the pitch behind her.

Former Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Reiner Calmund once said that in the cruel and unforgiving world of football, "You are worth nothing without a title." And his club didn't have one. They just had a nickname: 'Vizekusen', which literally translated as 'Secondkusen'.

In English, though, Bayer were better known as 'Neverkusen', the German game's eternal bridesmaids, a seemingly cursed club incapable of escaping its painful past. In the space of six seasons around the turn of the century, Leverkusen finished as runners-up four times. In 2002 alone, they threw away the Bundesliga title, lost to Schalke in the DFB-Pokal and were then beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

"The quality has always been there in Leverkusen," Michael Ballack lamented in an interview with 11Freunde, “but something has always been missing." That something, it turns out, was Xabi Alonso, who last season led Leverkusen to a German league-and-cup double - and without suffering a single defeat.

"It feels great," Alonso said after his side had completed their unbeaten Bundesliga season. "But I have the feeling this is not just for us, this is for so many people that have been chasing this dream for so many years." Indeed, the nightmare was finally over and Bayer didn't just have a league title, they had a new nickname too: 'Neverlusen'!

Manchester United are showing stuttering signs of life under new coach Ruben Amorim, but that only makes it all the more frustrating for the fans that the Portuguese wasn't appointed during the summer, when co-owners INEOS made the dreadful decision to stick with Erik ten Hag simply because he managed to pull off a shock win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final. It proved a predictably expensive error as Ten Hag's inevitable dismissal ended up costing United just over £10m ($13m).

Further money was squandered on hiring and firing sporting director Dan Ashworth, who was prised away from Newcastle for a significant sum of money, only to be sacked just five months into the job because of the breakdown of his relationship with Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

It's only right, then, that the INEOS chief's business acumen is now being questioned. Ratcliffe is of the opinion that some short-term pain is required to make long-term gains, but the current chaos and financial recklessness is a little tough for the supporters to stomach, given they're being once again asked to accept a ticket price hike at a club that's already seen more than 200 redundancies since INEOS took control of football operations at Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe's arrival was met with an awful lot of excitement, and while his ruthless streak could help United deal with many of their longstanding issues, right now, it's causing a lot of consternation. "Local lad Sir Jim charges £66 for OAPs + Juniors," read one banner unveiled ahead of the recent win over Everton. "Stop exploiting loyalty."

To think that people used to question Lionel Messi's claim on the title of the greatest of all time because of his lack of success at international level! The No.10 has now won three major honours in the past three years, with Argentina winning the 2022 World Cup in between back-to-back Copa America triumphs.

What was truly impressive about the Albiceleste's latest triumph, though, was the fact that their talisman wasn't at his best. Messi was severely restricted by injury during this year's Copa America and yet they still managed to overcome a resurgent Colombia in the final.

"Leo has something that everyone should have: he's the best in history and, even with an ankle like that, he doesn't want to go off," Lionel Scaloni said of his skipper. "But it's not because he is selfish, but because he does not want to let his team-mates down. He was born to be on a pitch."

Whether Messi decides to stick around for another World Cup is open to debate. He's 37 now - but the tournament is just 18 months away. What we do know, though, is that Argentina have that great hallmark of champions, in that they now believe they will find a way to win - no matter the circumstances.

In Scaloni, they also possess a wonderful coach blessed with the Midas touch, as underlined by three of his substitutes combining for the winner in the Copa final, with Leandro Paredes winning the ball, Giovanni Lo Celso putting Lautaro Martinez through on goal and the Inter striker taking care of the rest. Scaloni is hoping that Messi will continue until 2026, but even if he doesn't, he still looks more than capable of becoming just the second coach in football history to win two World Cups.

Unless you're an Arsenal fan, it's kind of hard not to feel at least a little bit sorry for the seemingly cursed Harry Kane. After finally taking the undeniably difficult decision to leave Tottenham, the striker looked certain to end his trophy drought at Bayern Munich - but despite Kane's record-breaking heroics during his first season in the Bundesliga, the Bavarians failed to win the title for the first time in 12 years while also being sensationally dumped out of the DFB-Pokal and suffering a heart-breaking Champions League semi-final loss to Real Madrid.

Even worse was to come, with Kane enduring constant calls for him to be dropped during England's highly fortuitous run to the final of Euro 2024. Of course, victory over Spain in Berlin would have made all the criticism irrelevant, but the Three Lions once again came up short when it mattered most, losing 2-1 to La Roja. Even more gallingly for Kane, he was hooked after an hour of making next-to-no impact on the game.

On the plus side, Bayern have put themselves in a strong position to reclaim their Bundesliga crown in 2025, but the long-suffering Kane won't be taking anything for granted, that's for sure!

A change of formation was key to Real Madrid's much-improved second-half performance in their Champions League final win over Borussia Dortmund - but Carlo Ancelotti was reluctant to take full credit for the tactical tweak.

"We thought switching to 4-3-3 would be better for us, but we talked about the change together, it wasn't my decision alone," he told reporters after the 2-0 win at Wembley. "I said to the players that it would be best if we changed, but we did it together."

Such a humble and harmonious approach is typical of the man. Ancelotti has never been one for reminding rivals how many titles he's won - which maybe partly explains why his achievements are so often overlooked - but his numbers speak for themselves.

He has won five European Cups - no other manager has lifted more than three - and is now the joint-most decorated coach in Real Madrid's history, with 14 honours.

To have enjoyed such success at Santiago Bernabeu, the most demanding arena in world football, is truly astounding. Ancelotti, who is once again under pressure in Madrid (primarily due to a poor run of results caused by a combination of injuries and club president Florentino Perez signing Kylian Mbappe!), rarely gets any credit for his tactical acumen. However, he's quite clearly the best big-club manager in modern football (Sorry, Pep!) thanks to his incredible composure under pressure and unrivalled man-management.

The affable Italian insists he's been "lucky to be at the best club in the world" - but he's won leagues in not only Spain, but also France, Italy, England and Germany, and the truth is that Madrid are just as lucky to have him.

Things certainly could have gone much worse for Paul Pogba in 2024. After all, he did manage to get his ban for breaching anti-doping regulations reduced to 18 months on appeal. The original four-year suspension would have effectively ended his career. As it stands, the 31-year-old is free to resume training in the New Year and can return to the field of play in March.

"Finally the nightmare is over," Pogba said in a statement in October. "I can look forward to the day when I can follow my dreams again."

The reality is, though, that Pogba is likely to find it very difficult to get back to anything like his best. The injury-plagued midfielder was struggling before his failed drugs test as it was, and Juve couldn't wait to release one of the highest-paid players on their wage bill.

Anyone who appreciates world-class talent will obviously be hoping that Pogba gets the fairy-tale ending to his career that he's so desperately craving and, who knows, maybe this whole sorry episode will prompt the Frenchman to focus his energy solely on football after so many seasons of disappointment and distraction.

But he's just wasted arguably the last of his peak years - and he's never going to get them back.