2025: The Year of the Underdog (even North Korea won something)

For the first time in 17 years, Tottenham actually won a trophy – a first European trophy since 1984, no less.

That they did it in the same season as their lowest league finish for 47 years made it all the stranger – yes, Spurs were tipped from the start as serious contenders to win the Europa League, but they then lost 22 of their 38 Premier League matches and finished 17th.

The appropriate Spursy outcome would have been to get all the way to the Europa League final, then succumb to Manchester United, but they only went and won it thanks to a goal from Brennan Johnson, who is Tottenham Hotspur's fourth-most expensive signing ever. Or at least, a goal that was credited to Brennan Johnson – the Welshman appeared to direct the ball away from the net, only for it to hit Luke Shaw and go in.

It was Ange Postecoglou’s last game – Keith Burkinshaw also left after winning the UEFA Cup in 1984, becoming boss of the Bahrain national team.

DEMBELE STRIKES GOLD

Before the Champions League’s last 16 in March, Mo Salah was 11-10 favourite to win the Ballon d’Or, ahead of Kylian Mbappe (11-4), Vinicius Junior (10-1), plus Lamine Yamal and Raphinha (14-1).

Virgil van Dijk, Jude Bellingham, Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Cole Palmer and Alexander Isak weren’t far behind, with Ousmane Dembele nowhere close – perennial bottlers PSG were only sixth favourites for the Champions League.

They then lost at home to Liverpool in the first leg of the last 16, before a penalty shootout win at Anfield kicked off a three-round wipe of English sides – Aston Villa and Arsenal also eliminated, before Inter were obliterated in Munich.

Seven goal contributions in PSG’s last six Champions League games helped Dembele bag the Ballon d’Or – Salah finished fourth, behind both Yamal and another PSG star in Vitinha.

THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED

Heading into 2025, Crystal Palace had never won a major trophy, and weren’t showing huge signs of doing so. The Eagles won just one of their first 13 Premier League fixtures in 2024-25, then nearly lost Jean-Philippe Mateta to a decapitation in the fifth round of the FA Cup against Millwall.

Fortunately, Mateta came out of hospital with only ear damage after a high challenge from goalkeeper Liam Roberts, and was back for the rest of Palace’s remarkable cup fairy tale.

A surprising 3-0 triumph over Aston Villa came in the semi-finals, before Eberechi Eze’s winner against Manchester City in the showpiece. They conceded only one goal on the way to the trophy.

PUSHING THE BOAT OUT

Mjallby AIF play in a fishing village of just 800 people – that didn’t stop them becoming champions of Sweden for the first time this autumn, smashing the league’s record points total.

Playing in the third tier as recently as 2018, the Hallevik-based side have a youthful line-up and no real stars, but boss Anders Torstensson ensured they lost only one of their 30 league games this year, winning the title with three matches to spare.

A tally of 75 points put them 13 clear of second-placed Hammarby and was eight better than the Allsvenskan record. Mjallby have never played in Europe – in 2026-27, they’ll enter the Champions League qualifying rounds.

FOREST FIRE

OK, so FourFourTwo might have got it wrong by tipping Nottingham Forest for relegation in 2025 – in fairness, they’d finished 16th and 17th in the previous two campaigns, and we weren’t the only ones doubting they’d stay up.

By the turn of the year, Forest were second, which has made 2025 a year of mixed feelings – seventh was still a fine finish that returned the club to Europe for the first time in three decades, which led to a win over Porto in October.

By then though, Evangelos Marinakis had marched onto the pitch in mid-May to gesticulate with Nuno Espirito Santo after a draw against Leicester saw their Champions League dream slip away, then sacked him in September, before hiring and firing Ange Postecoglou in the space of six weeks with the club back in a relegation battle.

SIDESHOW BOB: CYPRIOT EDITION

Pafos FC didn’t even exist 12 years ago – this November, the Cypriot club scored a historic triumph against Villarreal in the Champions League.

They were formed by a merger of AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia in 2014. Then, British-based Russian businessman Roman Dubov took over after promotion to the top tier, helping Pafos reach the last 16 of the Conference League last term, before a first domestic crown.

That earned them a spot in Champions League qualifying, where they shocked Maccabi Tel Aviv, Dynamo Kyiv and Red Star Belgrade to reach the league stage – there, an unlikely draw at Olympiacos was followed by the win over Villarreal, with a 38-year-old David Luiz playing in the heart of their defence.

FORM OUT OF THE WINDOW

In May, Sunderland became the first Championship club ever to go into the play-offs on the back of five successive defeats – by November, they were in the top four of the Premier League.

Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats had already accumulated more than enough points to make the top six by the time they hit dreadful form in April – at Wembley, they faced a Sheffield United side who had tallied 14 points more over the season. The Blades led the final and would have been 2-0 up but for a VAR intervention, before Sunderland came roaring back to win it in the last 15 minutes.

It was quite the sliding doors moment – the North East side’s fine start in the top flight owed much to brilliant summer recruitment, while Sheffield United lost 11 of their first 15 outings in the new Championship campaign, leaving them vulnerable to dropping into League One in 2026.

THE NEW MARADONA

When Scott McTominay left Manchester United last summer, few expected him to end the season by scoring the goal that won Napoli the Scudetto, then being voted Serie A’s most valuable player.

McTominay wasn’t universally popular with Red Devils fans during his days alongside Fred in defensive midfield – some felt the ‘McFred’ partnership was holding the club back. As it turned out, play him as an attacking midfielder, and he can score 12 Serie A goals in a season – including the spectacular effort against Cagliari that put Napoli on course for victory on the final day of the season, as they sealed the fourth title in the club’s 99-year history.

It’s made the Scot a God at the club, as he became known as ‘McTomadana’ – his overhead kick as Scotland qualified for the World Cup wasn’t bad either...

AND THE WORLD CHAMPIONS ARE… NORTH KOREA?!

No, we haven’t been hoodwinked by a rogue report from North Korean state television. The pariah nation could soon become a force in female football, after clinching the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in November, giving the Netherlands a 3-0 hiding in the final.

They’ve now won the tournament twice in as many years, and their senior team have also been as high as 10th in the FIFA rankings during 2025, even though North Korea haven’t featured at the last three senior World Cups.

They withdrew from qualifying for the 2023 World Cup because of the Covid pandemic, and were banned from the 2015 tournament after five players had failed doping tests – blaming it on deer musk in traditional Chinese medicines, which they said they’d used to treat players who’d been hit by lightning. Do dogs eat homework in Pyongyang, too?