AS WE NEAR the end of another jam-packed sporting year, Layth Yousif looks back on a memorable 12 months with the return of his annual review. 

Best comeback of 2025: BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year programme. Knowledgeable, warm and empathetic, while losing all the dumbing down and gimmicky nonsense. That and promoting women’s sport like never before with three outstanding female presenters in charge. If you’re one of those relentlessly pathetic gammons who complained, it says far more about you than anything else. I’m sure your mothers, sisters, daughters and granddaughters are proud of your hateful misogynistic tendencies. 

Team(s) of the Year: Unlike SPOTY I couldn’t split them. So, take a bow, The Lionesses, The Red Roses, and the European Ryder Cup team.

Biggest bridesmaids: Arsenal.

Honourable mentions: Nottingham CCC edging Surrey CCC to lift the Country Championship. The way the powers-that-be have spurned the competition that best prepares players for Test cricket has been nothing short of scandalous. But then what’s new… 

Arsenal Women beating Barcelona to win the Women’s Champions League. 

PSG beating Inter Milan 5-0 to win the Champions League as part of their six trophies in a calendar year. Although if you are owned by a country with a questionable human rights record and its sovereign wealth fund perhaps the more pressing question was: “What took them so long?” and “are their exploits worthy of such acclaim given they are backed by billionaire moneybags?”

Best Atmosphere: Watching the Lionesses win their penalty shootout against Spain to lift the European Championships in Basel.

Honourable mentions: Being at Wembley Stadium after Sunderland had beaten Sheffield United to win the Championship play-off final and watching nearly 50,000 loyal Mackems singing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.” It was such a mesmerising moment for a neutral, so god knows how emotional it felt for Sunderland’s loyal support to hail their return to the Premier League after so many years in the wilderness with their famous club anthem 

Players of 2025: Chloe Kelly. Ellie Kildunne. Ousmane Dembele. Declan Rice.

Manager of 2025: Sarina Wiegman.

Favourite matches of 2025: Lionesses winning the Euros in Switzerland. Arsenal 3-0 Real Madrid. England v India, Day Five, Fifth Test. South Africa beating Australia to win the World Test Championship at Lord’s.

Mismatch of the season: Lionesses 8-0 China. The England Test cricket team against Australia.

Best trips in 2025: I’ve been spoiled this year, with visits to the Netherlands, Madrid, Paris, Bilbao, the Baltic states, Prague, Albania and Bruges. 

Most random game of the season: Albania U21s v Ukraine U21s. In a beguiling town built 2,000 years ago across the Skanderbeg mountain range. A truly memorable experience, even if I felt a long way from home standing in the shadows of a Roman-built fortress I’d never heard of, and didn’t know existed a mere 24 hours previously. 

Most disappointing result of the year: Paris in the spring. I was convinced Arsenal would beat Parisian moneybags PSG on a warm night in the French capital in May on the way to finally winning the Champions League. I was wrong. 

Most unexpectedly enjoyable pre-match: Bumping into incredibly welcoming PSV fans who took myself and my friends to the final day of the Eindhoven carnival. Oompah bands and drinking competitions, double denim and bonhomie everywhere. We still keep in touch with our warm hosts, while I still silently give a prayer that I somehow managed to get the 7-1 score and scorers correct in my match report after such a bacchanalian afternoon. 

Most unexpectedly enjoyable pre-match II: Bruges Christmas markets. I still silently give a prayer that I somehow managed to get the score and scorers correct after “sampling” 10.5 per cent Belgian beer. 

Most disappointing performance of the year: Day Two of the Ashes in Perth. I had contemplated flying out to Perth as a punter and taking in the First Test. After such an abject collapse that broke my heart when revealing the ethos we had initially revelled in — then tried to defend — was simply another form of the Emperor’s New Clothes, I was ruefully glad I didn’t. 

Most unexpectedly enjoyable moments forged in the aftermath of defeat: 

1. Turning my phone off the morning after the night before in Paris, and purging myself of bitter disappointment in Paris by embarking on my own literary walking tour. Taking in places where George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and other literary heroes lived and wrote in Paris. Walking long distances in such a beautifully evocative city helped to ease the pain of defeat. Sort of. 

2. Turning my phone off, taking the dog for a restorative long walk in the country and a wonderful Sunday lunch with loved ones after England lost the second Ashes Test at the Gabba, the day after being at Villa Park to watch Arsenal lose in the 95th minute to their former manager. 

Best pies: If you haven’t tried the mouth-watering steak pie, mash and gravy at Harrogate Town, then I humbly suggest you do.

Best curry house: Masala Junction, Nottingham. A trip to the City Ground and or Trent Bridge is not complete without a trip to the Mansfield Road to take in this majestic restaurant, with prawns the size of tennis balls. 

Most memorable meal: Boiled pigs ear in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Most memorable meal: Pintxos in Plaza Nueva, Bilbao. The Basque region’s version of tapas are simply works of art.

Most memorable meal: Pintxos in San Sebastian’s Parte Vieja. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. With three beaches, a beautiful old town and a late-night culture, this Basque city is now my favourite place in Spain. 

Favourite ground: I have been fortunate to complete The 92 — so if you like “traditional” football grounds, where the support of past generations has seeped into original brickwork, clanking iron turnstiles, wooden seats and beautiful (to me at least) iron floodlights, then look no further than Barnsley’s Oakwell. 

Honourable mentions: Portsmouth’s Fratton Park and Stockport County’s Edgeley Park. For those of you who prefer non-league, the wooden terraces and bucolic treelines of Top Field, Hitchin Town’s ground for nearly a century. 

Most beautiful cricket ground visited in 2025: Arundel.

Hopes for 2026: World peace, an end to motorway night closures and rail replacement bus services, with Arsenal to finally end 21 years of hurt and lift the Premier League title for the biggest party in north London since the hated Tories were ousted.

Happy Christmas to you and yours. Thanks for reading my work in 2025.