Leicester? €222m? Ronaldo? The 🔟 biggest shocks of the decade | OneFootball

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The 2010s have been one long, weird decade.

And that’s been reflected in the world of football, too.

The unexpected has become the expected over the last 10 years but there have still been occasions where our minds have been blown and our jaws slacked.

Here, in no particular order, are 10 of the biggest footballing shocks of the decade.

A result that shook the world

Perhaps the game of the decade and the fixture that proved football has no time for sentiment.

Hosting the World Cup for the first time since 1950, Brazil were one of the favourites in 2014 and had showed, up to that infamous semi-final, that they were right to be considered a genuine contender.

Then Neymar got injured against Colombia in the last eight and the Selecao collapsed into a maelstrom of overwrought emotion.

Germany would dismantle them 7-1 in Belo Horizonte – a national scandal and a result that will go down in the annuls never to be forgotten.

Leicester upset the (5000/1) odds

Undoubtedly the shock of the last decade and a football story that made front and backpage headlines all over the world.

Leicester, a team of also-rans and maybes, had the season of their lives in 2015/16 and claimed their first ever league title.

Yes, they caught lightning in a bottle by outperforming themselves in a year when every ‘big’ club was having an existential meltdown, but the Foxes undoubtedly deserved to win the Premier League that season.

Claudio Ranieri, watching as Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma at the title celebrations, was one of the defining images of any season ever.

Destroying the Death Star

Kylian Mbappé. Bernardo Silva. Benjamin Mendy. Fabinho. Thomas Lemar. Tiemoue Bakayoko. All relatively unheralded before 2016/17. All title winners by the end of that season.

For a remarkable 10 month period Monaco, with their squad full of youthful promise, went toe-to-toe with the might of Paris Saint-Germain and got one over the Death Star.

Not only did they beat their moneyed rivals from the capital but did it in a swashbuckling all-action way.

Of course, as is the way with the modern game, it wasn’t to last but for a brief period, Monaco were the most exciting side in Europe.

What have you done?!

A transfer that shifted the paradigm and moved Paris Saint-Germain from nouveau riche upstart to genuine superpower.

A perfect storm of Neymar being unhappy at Barcelona, PSG wanting a statement signing and the Blaugrana believing they were safe having inserted what, at the time, looked an out-of-sight release clause, saw the Brazilian join the French champions in 2017.

€222m was how much it cost the Qatar-backed Parisians, and opened up financial Pandora’s Box that is unlikely to be closed ever again.

Qatar get World Cup

A controversy that essentially brought down Fifa president Sepp Blatter and his culture of back-rubbing and under-the-table deals.

Their decision to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was met with the derision it deserved and has shone a light on the toxic culture that Blatter had helped encourage at the organisation.

Cash and gifts for votes saw Fifa’s house of cards come crumbling down and also encouraged Western media to take a closer look at the appalling human rights abuses happening in Qatar.

It’s a sickening story which encapsulates what football has become in this last decade.

Fulham reach EL final

We’re stretching the limits of what’s allowed here but bear with us.

Fulham – lovely, lowly Fulham – beat the likes of Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Wolfsburg and Hamburg on their way to the 2010 Europa League final.

But it was their win over Juventus in the last 16 that was truly mesmeric.

Losing 3-1 from the first leg in Turin, Roy Hodgson’s men completed one of the most remarkable comebacks ever, beating the Old Lady 4-1 at Craven Cottage before making their way to the final in Hamburg.

They couldn’t make that final step though, losing out to Atlético Madrid in extra time thanks to a Diego Forlán winner.

Copa Libertadores chaos

The 2018 Copa Libertadores final. It wasn’t only supposed to be the game of the decade, but the game of the century –  or as Olé dubbed it: “the final to end all finals”.

River Plate vs Boca Juniors, two of Argentina’s biggest clubs, and eternal rivals, were the teams to decide who would be champions of South America.

Except, instead of football, there was all-out chaos.

The game had to be abandoned on two separate occasions because of safety fears following an attack on the River Plate bus, before CONMEBOL eventually decided to abandon the second leg altogether.

A month after the first game at La Bombonera, the match did eventually take place…in Madrid.

A truly unique story the likes of which we’re unlikely to see ever again.

Ronaldo joins Juve

The first in a series of unexpected events that would ultimately see Real Madrid lose their European crown.

Cristiano Ronaldo had done it all at Real Madrid and was looking for a new challenge away from Spain. He found that at Juventus.

The Bianconeri broke their transfer record to land the Portuguese goalscorer, and announced the news on the same day as the 2018 World Cup final.

In what is probably a sad indictment of football in the modern world, Ronaldo landing in Turin during half-time of the final in Moscow somehow counted as of equal importance.

It did though, announce the reemergence of Serie A as a genuine power and took Juve back to the top table of European football.

Lopetegui leaves Spain

A bombshell that derailed four years of planning and almost ended the career of a promising coach? You can thank Real Madrid for that.

Julen Lopetegui had led a young, exciting Spain side to the World Cup and were one of the pre-tournament favourites heading to Russia.

But when Zinedine Zidane unexpectedly left Los Blancos after winning his third Champions League it set off a chain of events that would have far-reaching consequences.

The reigning European champions made an approach for Lopetegui on the eve of the World Cup, and when he accepted their offer the Spanish FA took grave exception to, what they perceived, was a man not taking his duties seriously.

That saw Lopetegui leave his role as Spain boss just two days before their opening game and got his Real Madrid career off to the worst possible start.

He was sacked by Los Blancos 138 days later.