Matthew D’Souza – 
The 2015-2016 season of the English premier will be one of the most unbelievable seasons in the League’s history with last season’s strugglers Leicester City winning the League and Tottenham Hotspurs coming in second.
The bigger clubs were behind Arsenal (third), Manchester City (fourth), Manchester United (fifth), Liverpool (Eighth) and Chelsea (Ninth).
English Premier League
The spotlight was on Leicester City, who narrowly escaped relegation last season but were table-toppers and eventually champions.
It was a fairy tale with 65 -year old Claudio Ranieri managing a Leicester team with dwindling chances of survival. He was in charge of a team with average players from the lower and less prestigious leagues of European football.
However, he turned them into extraordinary players and won the Premier League title for the first time in the Club’s 132-year history.
To put this win into figures, Kim Kardashian has a higher chance of becoming US President by 2020 at the odds of 3000:1 and Leicester had odds of 5000:1 of winning the League and they did!
La Liga (Spanish League)
As it stands currently, the title race is open as FC Barcelona are high on the chart with 85 points, followed by giant killers Atletico Madrid who are enjoying a sensational Champions League and La Liga campaign.
These two are followed by Real Madrid CF, with 84 points.
The financial strength of this team and Barcelona means that either of the teams will be favourites to win the League, although a win for Atletico Madrid would round off a stellar year for them. This Club still has a high chance of being the dark horse and taking the bigger clubs by surprise.
Serie A (Italian League)
The 2015-16 season of the Serie A saw Juventus win their 32nd title and their fifth in a row. It also saw the success of SSC Napoli who are likely to finish second in the League, nine points behind leaders Juventus and two points ahead of the third placed A S Roma.
Roma has seen its fortunes change for the better since Luciano Spalletti replaced Rudi Garcia as the manager of the club.
SSC Napoli enjoyed one of the most successful campaigns in years chasing down eventual winners Juventus throughout the latter half of the season.
After losing their lead in a 1-0 loss to Juventus early in the year, this turnaround was due to the expertise of manager Maurizio Sarri.
This was coupled with the Club’s striker Gonzalo Higuain being in lethal form scoring 32 League goals, the second highest in the game’s history.
It was another dreadful year for AC Milan as they spent the first half of the year at 10th place struggling with the constant change in management.
This season also saw the retirement of veteran Italian striker and former Bayern Munich forward Luca Toni who scored in his last game for Hellas Verona against Juventus stunning the defending champions 2-1.
Along with this Roma legend, Francesco Totti completed a record 600 appearances as the club’s highest record holder and third in the most appearances in Serie A behind Javier Zanetti (615) and Paolo Maldini (632).
Napoli returns
Next year’s UEFA Champions League season will also see the return of Napoli to the league after a long absence. They will be accompanied by Juventus and possibly AS Roma as the Italian clubs have bettered their performances in the league.
Bundesliga
Bayern Munich won their record fourth title in a row this season as the most successful club in the leagues history crashed out of the UEFA Champions League by losing to giant killing Atletico Madrid in the semi-final.
This was the team’s hat trick. Mainz and Hertha Berlin proved to be surprise packages securing fifth and sixth places respectively. It was an expected win for Bayern, although not by a huge margin. Rivals Borussia Dortmund kept on the Club’s tail after a horrible season last year. They have climbed up to second place under new manager Thomas Tuchel.
Next seasons UEFA Champions League sports for the Bundesliga have been booked by Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Other teams
In other football leagues, Paris Saint Germain were crowned champions by annihilating their opponents with 13 points and the last placed team having gained a low 17 points the lowest of any European top flight last placed team.
As the 2015-2106 edition of the UEFA Champions League reaches the final in which Atletico Madrid will take on rivals Real Madrid in the hope of avenging a 4-1 loss at this stage of the competition four years ago.
Matthew D’Souza is one of our Sports Correspondents. He is a final year student at Avondale College in Auckland.
Photo:
- Leicester City emerged from relegation
- Atletico Madrid will push to the final
