Could this be the year when England’s men win their first international football trophy for 58 years? After all, they have the best striker in Europe in Harry Kane and the best attacking midfielder in Jude Bellingham, both of whom are being treated like Wellington and Nelson at their respective clubs BayernMunich and Real Madrid. This should be about time too that pundits admit that the way Bellingham lit up the European Championships in Germany makes him, at the very least, Bobby Charlton’s equal. If he is not Sports Personality of the Year in 2024, something very odd must have happened in the space-time continuum.
If Bellingham is not Sports Personality of the Year in 2024, something very odd must have happened
England also have the best right winger in Europe in Bukayo Saka; a superb holding midfielder in Declan Rice; and the fastest full back on the planet in Kyle Walker. So can anything stop England? Well yes, and his name is Harry Maguire.
The Championships will be superbly organised, as the man in charge is Philipp Lahm, one of the smartest, most creative players ever to grace a football field. But might the game come to its senses and stop awarding career-ending penalties because, after six minutes studying the videotape, the VAR decides that the ball has brushed someone’s fingernail? Goals should be hard to score and we should be able to celebrate them.
In tennis, 2024 could be the year when we finally learn whether Emma Raducanu has buckled under the weight of expectation she piled on herself by winning the US Open as a teenager – and wringing out of it as much publicity and moolah as she could – and will be forever remembered as a one-hit wonder. Or could she start winning again?
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