Lionel Messi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Ronnie O’Sullivan in greatest story ever told – 2022 Sports Review of Year

“I dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so much that I still haven’t fallen..I can’t believe it.” – Lionel Messi

According to the official dictionary definition, a fairytale is defined as a “magical event” in a place “so wonderful that you can hardly believe that it is real”. What the dictionary does not tell you is that in the world of professional sport, fairytales are real. They do come true. Even for adult kids. Let it go? No, let it be. Such fabled moments are indeed frozen in time. In 2022, there were enough fairytales buzzing around to shake a stick at.

Yet there was one miraculous image that will clamp itself to the memory banks in perpetuity. It was a ‘where were you’ moment to end them all in the rich passage of sporting folklore.

A moment in time when the enchanting evergreen Prince of the Pampas flourished in the arid backdrop of Qatar.

‘Failure is part of the journey’ – Messi’s Dunes of destiny

Let’s begin at the end. Once upon a time, there was a man named Messi, a diminutive yet gigantic football explorer whose dream was to travel to a far-off land in search of mythical gold.

The World Cup was the only treasure to elude him amid his sweltering collection of baubles, including the 2021 Copa America, four Champions League crowns, 10 La Liga titles in Spain, Ligue 1 in France and seven Ballon d’Or awards. The list was endless minus the big one. But no more.

At a winter World Cup in the autumn of his career, 35-year-old Messi found his spring, by turning back the clock further than the amount of time added to the 64 matches in the globe’s largest sporting jamboree.

All’s well that ends well for the Albiceleste. After 36 years of being isolated in some sort of mythical sporting purgatory, studying technicolor images of national idol Diego Maradona being hoisted shoulder-high around the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City after a 3-2 win over West Germany in the 1986 World Cup final, Argentina has a fresh prince of ball air.

The sands of time move slowly in life, but can be reduced to a matter of seconds in the unrelenting world of professional sport. In the middle of the Arabian desert a week before Christmas, Messi’s legacy was settled on penalties, the football equivalent of pitch-and-toss to validate a lifetime’s body of work.

That might sound absurd, but is far less fantastical than the goings on which led to the final denouement. Holders France and Messi’s rampant Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Kylian Mbappé provided a huge road block.

That 24-year-old Mbappé scored a treble – the first man to achieve such an outlandish feat since Geoff Hurst for England against West Germany in the 1966 final – yet departed the scene a loser tells you enough about some frenetic goings on in the French defence, who shipped too many goals, eight over seven games, to control their own destiny.

Argentina somehow contrived to lose 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in their opening match, but wins against Mexico and Poland saw them progress as Group C winners.

A 3-0 semi-final clubbing of Croatia enabled Argentina to dock in the final for the second time in three attempts following their 1-0 defeat by Germany in Brazil 2014. This time would be different.

Messi would lift the Golden Ball as the player of Qatar 2022. He would finish the tournament with seven goals and three assists in 690 minutes of pristine, probing and joyful play, but ironically in a team sport, it was the individual calculating clarity of his thought process from the penalty spot that arguably stood him in greatest stead when push came to glove.

Having converted from 12 yards against Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Croatia, he added another penalty in the final before Ángel Di María appeared to have ended his nation’s hunger years with a chipped second before half-time.

A 2-0 lead was rapidly wiped out by the magnificent Mbappé in the 80th and 81st minute until Messi then tucked home from unmissable range for a second time in the 108th minute of extra-time.

History again beckoned for Argentina until a second handball given against Gonzalo Montiel in the dying seconds saw Mbappé convert his treble to force the issue all the way. The Golden Boot as tournament top scorer on eight was to be his consolation gong.

Argentina nor Messi would be denied. Messi followed Mbappé into the net from the penalty shoot-out having managed a similar feat in scoring after Virgil van Dijk faltered during the shoot-out with the Dutch.

While Kingsley Coman saw his penalty saved by the debatable goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Aurelien Tchouameni missed for France, Argentina emerged from the cauldron blemish-free as Montiel converted the winning kick to catapult Messi into another sporting stratosphere.

“I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football and his name is Messi,” said Maradona back in 2006.

After earning 172 caps for his country and scoring 98 times, Messi has become synonymous with World Cup excellence. He has the most man of the Match awards (11) and most World Cup appearances as a captain (19). With 26 appearances on the grandest stage over five tournaments, he has moved one clear of Lothar Matthäus, Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning captain.

“This Cup we got is also for all those who did not make it in the previous World Cups we played, like in 2014 in Brazil, where they all deserved it for how they fought until the same final, worked hard, and wanted,” said Messi.

“And we deserved it even in that damn ending. It’s also for Diego who encouraged us from heaven.

“And of all those who spent the time always supporting the national team without looking so much at the result, but the desire we always put into it, also when things didn’t go as we wanted.

“Many times, failure is part of the journey and learning and without the disappointments, it is impossible for success to come.”

Is Messi the greatest? Definitely maybe, but who knows? That debate will rage forever ever after and perhaps rightly so. Maradona was marvellous, Pele was perfection, Cristiano Ronaldo remains irrepressible in his pomp and the marauding Mbappé may soon enter the narrative.

But there is an argument to suggest nobody did it better than Messi, a quiet, selfless and dedicated man with a burning desire to max out on his talent as a football deity.

What cannot also be debated is that Messi completed his magnum opus in Qatar. Nor can it be disputed that greatest sporting story ever told was about Messi, Mbappé and the 2022 World Cup final. Words struggle to do this justice. This was not a mirage. It did happen.

‘A perfect ending’ – Federer’s time to say goodbye

In keeping with the theme of fairytale finales, tennis in 2022 felt like a tear-jerking version of beauty and the best.

The world witnessed the harrowing beauty of Roger Federer retiring from the sport at the age of 41 in September as he shared a court with his lifelong companion and friendly rival Rafael Nadal with the tears flowing at the Laver Cup in London’s O2.

“We all hope for a fairytale ending. Here’s how mine went: Lost my last singles, lost my last doubles, lost my last team event, lost my voice during the week, lost my job,” he commented.

“But still, my retirement could not have been more perfect and I’m so happy with how everything went. So don’t overthink that perfect ending, yours will always be amazing in your own way.”

Never a dull moment with Kyrgios, he later accepted he was mistaken in that belief and swiftly settled a legal case that arose from the incident.

Djokovic was giddy in the afterglow of a seventh Wimbledon title at the All England Club. He is within one major of Nadal’s 22 which merely adds to the impending intrigue.

The iron-willed Djokovic could yet a 10th Melbourne Park victory in January.

“After obviously what happened earlier this year, hopefully I can have a decent reception there and hopefully that can help me play some good tennis.”

She will be held up as statistically the greatest tennis player of her era. Williams has so far won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and has twice held all four majors at the same time, but perhaps is not yet finished with her pioneering playing career.

Neither were around when Roger rose to his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003 – Alcaraz was only two months old when Federer dismantled Mark Philippoussis in straight sets – but both were brought up on a diet of the Swiss composer’s blissful creativity.

Alcaraz astonishingly began the season as world No. 32 but became the first man since 2003 to finish the season at the top of the summit outside of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal or Andy Murray, who continues to perform gamely set against trajectory-altering hip surgery.

Murray’s unfortunate defeat against the bludgeoning serve of John Isner boasting 36 aces in the second round of Wimbledon had to be seen to be believed.

Djokovic or Nadal is likely to emerge as the most prolific Grand Slam winner of all time, but the numbers will not settle the GOAT debate in tennis. Merely because you cannot simply judge a career on statistics. Not when you discuss the value of Roger in transcending tennis.

Watching Federer play tennis was to engage with a unique cathartic sensation. Roger Federer as a religious experience was once touted before the penance of a dodgy knee in his early 40s finally ended the kneeling.

There was something in the way he moves. There are not too many figures in sport who can transfix the viewing public the way he did.

The man from Basel brought an air of balletic brilliance to a game dominated by thumping behemoths.

When you think of Federer, you immediately imagine grace, speed and bewitching athleticism. You think of all the gorgeous things that professional sport should be about.

One thinks of Muhammad Ali halting Sonny Liston, Messi and Maradona skipping beyond football’s hatchet men or Sachin Tendulkar obliterating a Test attack in cricket. It is not merely about doing it, but how you do it.

You think of the very basics of tennis in its rawest form of knocking a ball back across a net being carried out the way it was intended from its origins.

More than a tennis player, he was an inimitable theatrical performer, dabbing his brushstrokes on the canvas of the tennis courts the world over for the past 24 years.

The times they are a changing, but not that much. Not with Djokovic and Nadal continuing their GOAT joust. Federer can retire knowing he never faltered when opportunity knocked with 103 titles merely an addition to his playing obituary rather than its definition.

“Someone who I have admired, who I have rivalled and also I have shared many beautiful things on and off the court was leaving,” said Nadal in London.

“You know you’re not going to live that again, and a part of my life left with him. It was also the emotion of saying goodbye to someone who has been so important to our sport.”

So important in the history of the game yet Federer is suddenly a tennis ghost. At such junctures, parting is such sweet sorrow. Nobody can turn back time. Not even Roger. But the memories never die.

‘Nobody can take this away from me’ – Vingegaard is a dashing Great Dane

Cycling remains a ferocious battle of mental and physical fortitude where time waits for no man. A battle of wills on two wheels does not explain half of what went on this summer.

The Tour de France is arguably the most daunting endurance challenge known to man in any sporting field, but Jonas Vingegaard’s unheralded victory was built on breaking the seemingly insurmountable figure of Tadej Pogačar during his rise to prominence in July.

With the 109th Tour getting underway in the rain of Vingegaard’s native Denmark, a two-man joust for supremacy caught fire in the fierce French heat when the Danish rider – a distant second in the 2021 GC by over five minutes – launched a ferocious attack on the final climb of stage 11 to relieve Pogačar of the overall lead.

Vingegaard had been 39 seconds behind the Tour favourite heading for the Alps, but rampaged clear on the Col du Granon to establish a lead of over two minutes that was remarkably the beginning of the end for the two-time defending champion, who had appeared to be constructing a Tour dynasty in the same fashion as Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Chris Froome and Bernard Hinault.

That could still happen, but the hills have eyes at Le Tour and are unforgiving to any sign of frailty. History might yet be kind to the Slovenian powerhouse, but he suddenly has company up ahead in the hijacking mountain muscle of Vingegaard, who illustrated his champion qualities by never looking back after his maiden Tour win.

“It’s the biggest cycling race of the year, the biggest one you can win and now I’ve done it and nobody can take this away from me,” he said.

Like Greg LeMond on the same summit finish in 1986, the first time it has been used in the intervening 36 years, he led the field home from that pivotal stage victory, eventually claiming the yellow jersey by over three-and-a-half minutes.

It was a remarkable effort from Vingegaard as he emerged as King of the Mountains and the ultimate Tour king. It could make for a compelling rivalry in the here and now.

“The battle between me and Jonas for the yellow jersey has been very special,” said Pogačar. “I think we have some very interesting next two or three years ahead of us. Jonas has stepped up his game this year.”

Life begins at 40 for the revitalised Annemiek van Vleuten.

She became the first woman to complete the double of Tour and Giro Donne.

“Every year, I sit down with my coach, and we have a dinner to evaluate the last year and make a plan for the new year. Every year, he says, ‘It cannot be better than this year.’ But it was by far my best year ever,” said the Olympic time trial champion, who is likely to wind down her professional career in 2023.

“All the goals I set, apart from performing well in the individual time trial at the World Championships, all the goals I had this season came true. It’s unbelievable.”

‘It was all real’ – Gu revels in great expectations

There is always a poster boy or girl of any Olympic Games.

18-year-old Eileen Gu opted to represent her mother’s China over the United States and was immediately bequeathed widespread fanfare before her bid to achieve immortality.

Gu is the youngest freestyle skiing gold medallist in Olympic history securing gold in the women’s freeski halfpipe and big air and silver in slopestyle.

“I put so much work into this, and to just feel like it was all worth it,” said Gu.

“There were all those little moments, the time I put in, in the gym, when I ran a half-marathon every week over the summer, when I pushed myself to be the first person in practice and the last person to leave.

“Just all those moments added up and it was just this great realisation that it was all worth it and that it was all real.”

The three-time world champion returned from Pyeongchang in 2018 clutching bronze, but the American idol fulfilled his destiny by attaining team silver and individual gold in Beijing.

He is the first skater in history to have landed five quadruple jumps in competition in setting a world-record score of 113.97 in the men’s short program.

After finishing fifth at the 2018 Winter Games, Chen awe-inspiring quad leaps of faith in the free skate ensured Beijing gold and secure his legacy as one of the all-time greats at the tender age of only 23.

Dancing to Elton John’s Rocket Man seemed like an apt decision as his performance was out of this world.

“Just so happy. It means the world. My mum was born here,” said Chen. “It’s amazing to have this opportunity. I can’t even describe it, you can’t even imagine what it might feel like but it’s just amazing.”

In saving the best until last, Eve Muirhead’s team – including the terrific supporting cast of Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, and Hailey Duff – finally swept the floor with her rivals in Beijing with the previous best of bronze in Sochi 2014 rendered a mere staging post on their golden sojourn.

A 10-3 win over Japan saw Muirhead’s team realise their dream on the final day of Olympic action. It was Britain’s solitary gold of the Winter Games, but well worth waiting for 12 years after the Perth woman’s debut in Vancouver.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Muirhead. “That was my third semi-final, and the two I lost were hard but I bounced back and here we are. We are Olympic champions. It’s such a special moment.”

Muirhead’s inspirational victory came 20 years after fellow Scot Rhona Howie and her ‘Stone of Destiny’ secured gold in Salt Lake City. A curious twist of historical fate.

Colby Stevenson is some kind of wonderful. He reminded us of the wider importance of sport by unearthing a silver-winning cameo in men’s big air.

“Your toughest times can become building blocks,” he said. “That’s when you find your true character.”

Such recoveries are fairytale stories from a land of make believe.

‘Virtually impossible’ – Rocket man is man of steel in Sheffield

Ronnie O’Sullivan is a sporting genius with otherworldly powers when he takes to a snooker table.

It was his second world triumph inside three years as he equalled Stephen Hendry’s totemic haul of seven lifted between 1990 and 1999 to secure his legacy as the snooker and by extension cue sport GOAT.

In truth, he was never seriously challenged during his latest sprint to the sport’s most-lauded trophy, a tournament he has conquered in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022.

He fell 3-0 behind to David Gilbert in the first round, but recovered strongly in a 10-5 win before similar convincing victories over Mark Allen (13-4), Stephen Maguire (13-5), John Higgins (17-11) and Judd Trump (18-13) saw him extend his record as the most prolific ranking winner of all time.

O’Sullivan is the undisputed king of his darkened domain with a technical supremacy and speed of thought giving off the feeling that he is at one with the snooker table. Like the baize is a mere extension of his birthright.

A rare breed of sportsperson who wins and entertains, like Federer, he won’t last forever. Even though it feels like he is preserved by some age-defying emollient in deepest Essex.

He stands alongside Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins and Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White as genuine crowd-pleasers who have changed the face of snooker since the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield first housed the World Championship in 1977, bringing a greater popularity to the green baize beyond working-class blokes potting balls in darkened halls set against the sweat of heavy industry.

O’Sullivan usurped the Welshman Ray Reardon – the tactical coach behind his 2004 triumph – to become the oldest world champion since the inception of the modern era.

O’Sullivan had 46 years and 148 days behind him when he held aloft the little silver lady on a priceless Bank Holiday Monday. Naturally, the tears poured forth as he emotionally embraced Trump. It was the nearest any opponent got to him over 17 tortuous days.

Reardon was 45 years and 203 days when he snagged a 25-18 win over South Africa’s Perrie Mans in the 1978 final to revel in his sixth and final world title, a total matched by Steve Davis between 1981 and 1989.

O’Sullivan concedes reaching utopia suggests his career at the elite level can run for several more years after rolling in 15 century breaks and 46 knocks over 50.

“At times I felt like the cue ball was on a piece of string,” he said. “I was putting it where I wanted. In some ways, it didn’t matter where the balls were.

“I just knew there were keys shots I had to get to and I was confident I was able to do it.

“It is a good feeling winning frames from virtually impossible positions.”

‘Teary-eyed’ – Tiger lives in moment with heroic recovery

The natural order of golf was changed forever as LIV Golf floated enough financial incentive in 2022 to entice an array of leading names to depart the PGA Tour.

There will be 14 LIV events, a staggering $405 million in purses and more players tempted by the inducements on offer in 2023.

His 20-under four-round 268 total was one stroke better than Tiger Woods managed during his eight-stroke victory at the Old Course in 2000.

The return of Woods to major competitive was both rousing and heart-wrenching as he fought off serious health issues to compete at the Masters in April.

Woods managed a one-under par 71 in his first competitive round since a dreadful car crash in February 2021.

Woods made the cut at Augusta and finished in 47th place before withdrawing from the PGA Championship and missing the cut at St Andrews.

He finished nine over for two rounds at the home of golf, but his tearful walk up the 18th and brief beautiful interlude on the Swilcan Bridge would reduce any granite heart to blubber.

“I’m not one who gets very teary-eyed very often about anything,” he said. “But when it comes to the game and the transition, I get it.

“I was lucky enough in ’95 to watch Arnold (Palmer) hit his first tee shot in the second round as I was going to the range and I could hear Jack (Nicklaus) playing his last one in 2005 – I was probably about four holes behind him.

“The ovations were getting louder and louder and louder. I felt that as I was coming in.”

He has achieved a minor miracle this year by returning to such a competitive level of golf at the majors.

He may be far from his peak, but neither does he plough on without hope. His bravery to compete is arguably more impressive than any of his 15 majors.

He clearly has pain to contend with and a swing issue to address, but it would not be ridiculous to imagine him overcoming such obstacles. Defying the doubters is what he has always done best. His very presence is a gift to golf.

Major golf is one of the harshest schools in world sport when you consider McIlroy finished inside the top 10 of all four majors this year.

The Northern Irishman was better or equal with 97.5% of the players he faced across the four majors, but won none. He was a blistering 29 under across the four majors in 1st place, eight strokes ahead of Zalatoris, but won none.

‘Start of a journey’ – England’s Lionesses roar at Wembley

While the men’s team suffered the agony of defeat to France in the quarter-final of the World Cup, England’s women revelled in a memorable European Championship final at Wembley.

Not quite coming home when you are already home, but victory was hailed a landmark moment for the development of the women’s game.

“This is the proudest day of my life,” said captain Leah Williamson. “The legacy of this tournament is a change in society. We’ve brought everyone together and we’ve got people at games. The legacy of this team is winners, and it’s the start of a journey.”

Madrid have claimed the club game’s biggest trophy 14 times, double the amount Milan (7) in second place have managed. It is an astonishing level of dominance and a greater lesson in getting your priorities right.

Witnessing Christian Eriksen return to elite football was another minor miracle after he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed during a European Championship match with Finland nine months earlier.

He came on as a substitute against the Netherlands in Amsterdam and scored with his first touch. A touching moment for all concerned with Eriksen earning a move to Manchester United from Brentford to complete his fairytale recovery.

‘Success is no accident’ – Nobody is a light touch in sport

The fight of the year illustrated the fact that nobody is beyond a beating as Canelo Alvarez – the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world – was outboxed by the undefeated Dmitry Bivol for the WBA light-heavyweight title in May.

It was only Canelo’s second defeat in 62 fights after rising to world titles in four weight classes. The ‘Legacy is Earned’ bout will surely become unfinished business in 2023.

Like an inquisitive Walt Whitman poem, the energy, passion and endless fascination with sport as its own life form hints at a greater meaning in the wider picture of everyday existence, rhythms and turbulence.

“Success is no accident,” said Brazil’s football folk hero Pele. “It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

Success in life is never defined by victory or defeat, but continues to evolve in the mind when one retreats for the evening to reflect in your quieter moments. Failure is only ever measured against how you view success. It is only ever defined by you.

Everybody has a chance to add their own line to the great tome before moving forward from the time when you had your moment, when you were out there confronting the brutal, unforgiving arena.

This year Messi, Mbappé, Nadal, Federer, Woods, O’Sullivan and countless others took the opportunity to add a telling chapter and verse in their own unique manner.

The greatest story ever told will have countless addendums in 2023 and the ensuing years of turmoil and tumult.

Being the author of your own fate is all anyone can ever ask for.

Desmond Kane