2016 will be remembered in the sports world and the political world as a year in which nothing followed the rules, and it all started in August 2015 with a struggling premier league football club. Yes, it’s Gary’s infamous tweet!

In August Leicester had just managed to stay in the premier league and had lost their manager who kept them up, so, they hired a fairly uninspiring gaffer called Claudio Ranieri, they were favourites to be relegated. But they were to buck the trend and ignore the Bookies. Come December they were top of the Premier League, and everyone said it won’t last – hence Gary Lineker a famous former Leicester and England player and host of Match of the Day tweeted this:

This you could say started it all.

Leicester City went on to win the Premier League against all the odds, and a couple divisions below Burton Albion surprised everyone by winning the Sky Bet League 1.

Next was Euro 2016 in France which is memorable in its own right for nearly not happening after lots of terrorists threats and sadly attacks. However once the tournament was underway it allowed lots of small footballing nations to find success, most notably Iceland. Who were never meant to get out of the group stage let alone reach the quarter-finals, beating England (a dismal England at that). Wales also surprised Europe by very nearly getting into the final.

However, the eventual winners Portugal although at the start were expected to be maybe semi-finalists struggled every match to eventually grind out a result against tournament favourites France.

This wasn’t the end of sporting upsets. Along came the Rio Olympics, embroiled in a Russian State Doping Crisis, but it still produced incredible upsets:

Firstly Novak Djokovic a seemingly unbeatable tennis player was beaten by the relatively unknown Sam Querry and Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig took gold in the womens’ singles beating world number 2 Kerber and the Williams’ sisters falling virtually at the first hurdle in their Olympic tennis campaigns.

Also Team GB had a staggering medal haul beating China in the medals table and doing just as well in the Paralympics.

Leaving the Olympics let’s move onto Formula One and an 18 year-old winning a grand prix. Max Verstappen managed to win a grand prix and get onto the podium multiple times in the year despite Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton dominating the sport – it is no surprise Max has been tipped to be a future world champion.

Then came Political Upheaval. Starting with the word of the year: Brexit. All the polls suggested a Bremain victory but on June 23rd the country decided to leave the European Union.

Next came the Billy Goat Curse. Over a century ago the Chicago Cubs were a decent baseball team until a man and his goat were refused entry into one match. The man then put a curse on the club saying they would never win World Series until long after his death. But, in 2016 they finally won the series and only one year out from the joke found in Back to The Future Part 2 which was set in 2015.

Now comes the lastest shock in the world. Political newbie Donald Trump beating heavy favourite and highly experienced Democrat Hilary Clinton to the Whitehouse after a long and highly watched election campaign.

So, what’s next will Leicester win again? Hopefully not because Gary Lineker’s been on the Twitter machine again:

Surely there can’t be anymore upsets this year, although maybe Ed Balls will win Strictly or Judge Rinder, who genuinely has surprised viewers already this series by being a lot better than expected.

Pictures:

2016 – Huffington Post

Lineker Tweets – BBC.co.uk

Burton Albion – Derby Telegraph

Iceland Team – Independant.co.uk

Womens’ Singles Medal Ceremony – Footwear News

Max Verstappen – Sky Sports

Goat Busters – Sports Illustrated

Ed Balls & Katya – The Guardian

Judge Rinder & Oksana – unrealitytv.co.uk