The sporting year 2025 delivered goals, fouls, headlines, laughs, embarrassments and much more - blue Sport has put together a selection.
Scott McTominay - The goal of the year
Even our grandfathers used to proudly tell us that they used to tackle their opponents in a rustic manner. "Scottish half-high" was what they called it 60 years ago when they would rather fly into a player's leg than dribble around him.
Scots and technical finesse? That still goes together today. Actually. Recently, however, SSC Napoli midfielder Scott McTominay provided the ultimate proof to the contrary. He gave Scotland the lead against Denmark in the match for the group win in the World Cup qualifiers - with a bicycle kick that would have done credit to Pelé or Diego Maradona.
The world was amazed. The Scots ultimately won 4:2, partly because McTominay's colleague Kenny McLean took Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel by surprise from 50 meters to secure qualification for the final round. This was also a shy sign that the Scots can do what many obviously wrongly deny: Playing football.
Dominik Kohr - The foul of the year
Speaking of "Scottish half-high. Dominik Kohr, 31-year-old midfielder for Mainz 05 and son of former GC player Harald Kohr, should know what that means. This is the style in which he cleared Max Moerstedt in November. It was lucky that the Hoffenheim player did not injure his ankle in the attack. He escaped with grazes and bruises. He was "nicely stamped on", said Hoffenheim coach Christian Ilzer afterwards.
Kohr was punished with a three-match ban and a fine. It could have been worse - after all, Kohr does everything he can to prove his reputation as the league's bully on a weekly basis. With nine red cards, he now holds the Bundesliga record, and with 102 cautions, he is eight short of equaling Stefan Effenberg's yellow card record. It is fair to say that "Effe" will lose his top position.
Andres Ambühl - farewell of the year
As corny as it would have been, you would have wished him well. Andres Ambühl, the almost 42-year-old Swiss field hockey monument, was almost crowned with the World Cup title in his last professional game last May. Once again, as in 2013, 2018 and 2024, when the national team's assault on the World Cup throne was only halted in the final. This time, the USA dealt the Swiss national team and Ambühl the coup de grace - with a 1:0 win in extra time.
Before that, coach Patrick Fischer's players had shone: with a 7-0 win over the Danes in the semi-final, a 6-0 win over Austria in the quarter-final and even a 10-0 win over the Hungarians in the group stage. However, "Büehli", six-time Swiss champion and equally popular with the team, fans, staff and media, had to settle for silver once again.
He then retired from the sporting stage. For good. As a World Championship record player with 120 appearances. Tears were shed by Ambühl himself, his teammates and all those who suffered and mourned with the Swiss national field hockey team. Nevertheless, the Grisons native is certain of a place on the Swiss field hockey Olympus.
Fabio Celestini and Taulant Xhaka - The action of the year
Well, he could also have been listed in the "Farewell of the Year" category. Taulant Xhaka played his last of 407 competitive matches for FC Basel in the 4-0 win over Lucerne on May 24 - as always with the number that has long been considered a Basel shrine: 34.
To honor Xhaka, the then FCB coach Fabio Celestini took Xhaka off the field in the 34th minute. To the applause of everyone: the fans, who put on a fantastic choreography; the Basel players and even the opponents - and of course: his family.
Granit, Taulant's brother, was also moved in the stands and later addressed words to his older brother via microphone. Taulant, not exactly known as someone who is built close to the water, simply said that he couldn't say much. "Otherwise it gets too emotional. And I didn't want to cry in front of my father."
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde - the comeback of the year
It happened around two years ago: Norwegian downhill skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, overall World Cup winner in 2020, crashed shortly before the finish of the Lauberhorn downhill - and seriously injured his shoulder and lower leg; his nerves were severely affected.
Not only that: Kilde was struck down by life-threatening blood poisoning. Panic attacks plagued him. He recently said in an interview that he had even become aware of his finiteness. "It was a matter of life and death." The son of alpine skiing legend Kjetil Andre Aamodt faced uncertainty - especially as a top athlete.
But he fought his way back, always accompanied and driven by his wife, Mikaela Shiffrin, herself an alpine giant. At the end of November in Copper Mountain, Kilde, now 33 years old, celebrated his comeback in the World Cup. Shiffrin was moved to tears in the finish area. And she wasn't the only one.
Ditaji Kambundji - The medal of the year
Ditaji Kambundji leaves everyone standing at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and runs to gold in the 100 meter hurdles! With a time of 12.24 she is faster than the top favorites Tobi Amusan and Grace Stark and improves her own Swiss record by 16 hundredths. She is the seventh fastest woman of all time in the 100 meter hurdles. Never before had a Swiss woman become world champion in this sport.
"It's gold. I don't know, I just ran fast and now I have gold," says an incredulous Kambundji after the race, her voice faltering and tears in her eyes. "I've never cried so many beautiful tears. I couldn't believe it, I was screaming super loud. It all happened so quickly."
Karim Adeyemi - The mistake of the year
Let he who is without fault cast the first stone. We should stick to that before we start swinging the moral club. Nevertheless, Karim Adeyemi's behavior can confidently be described as "naive and stupid", as one of his superiors, Rudi Völler, sports director of the German Football Association, did.
The police found brass knuckles and a Taser, a stun gun, in the home of the 23-year-old international and Dortmund professional. Criminal charges were filed for illegal possession of weapons.
Adeyemi found the unwelcome "paraphernalia" in a mystery box that he had ordered on the Internet. The gag: you order a box and don't know what's inside. At least that's what Adeyemi claims. Nevertheless, he has to pay a fine of 450,000 euros. The reason? Adeyemi wanted to cover up the story.
Björn Borg - The confession of the year
He won eleven Grand Slam tournaments, in Wimbledon and Paris. He was the world number one in tennis for 109 weeks. And he crashed. He drank, he took coke, he swallowed pills - and not just too little. Björn Borg published his biography "Hjärtslag" ("Heartbeat") in September of this year, and he doesn't spare any self-criticism in it. "Drugs, pills, too much alcohol... that destroys life," writes Borg. And he was referring to the time after his career ended in 1983.
An emergency doctor regularly intervened. Before a show match in the early 90s, he overdid it with the nose powder and collapsed on the street in front of his father. "I've never been so ashamed in my life," says Sweden's "Sportsman of the 20th Century". He went to rehab - and managed to return to life. Today, he tries to help and warn others.
Uli Forte - The saying of the year
"If they don't want us in the league, they should say so." That's what Uli Forte, then outraged coach of relegation-threatened FC Winterthur, said in February 2025 after a defeat in Lucerne - within a week, FCW had had to endure five refereeing errors.
Forte was suspended and also reprimanded within the club. However, he hoped to have sensitized the referees. "After all, we're not the nice little FCW". In the end, FCW held on in extremis. And refereeing errors against the Winterthur team quickly became a rarity.
Marc-André ter Stegen - the injury of the year
His time seemed to have come, finally, after years of having to take a back seat to world goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the German national team. But Marc-André ter Stegen, the FC Barcelona goalkeeper, was still unable to ascend to the German goalkeeping throne left behind by Neuer after his retirement.
In July 2025, the 33-year-old ter Stegen underwent an operation after suffering persistent back pain; he was out of action for months. As a result, he was classified as a long-term injury by the Spanish league, which means he will be out of action for at least four months. Meanwhile, Hoffenheim's Oliver Baumann moved into the DFB goal. At the end of the year, ter Stegen started training again.
However, it remains to be seen whether he will return to the Barça goal. He and his club engaged in a public mud fight. The club even demonstratively took off his captain's armband. Although he now has it back, there is someone else in goal: summer signing Joan Garcia. Betting on ter Stegen's participation in the World Cup, whose class nobody doubts, would still not be a wise idea.
Manuel Neuer - outing of the year
Speaking of ter Stegen and Neuer: The latter is considered the ideal of a playmaking goalkeeper despite being almost 40 years old. As someone who doesn't "just" scrape balls off the line, but also intercepts them far in front of his goal and deals with them in a playful and confident manner - almost unique.
The Champions League match at FC Arsenal, which was dubbed a duel between the "best teams in the world", proved that even Neuer, who has been regarded as the best in the world for years, can make mistakes. It was around a quarter of an hour before the end when Neuer stormed out of goal, but Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli put the ball past the impetuous goalkeeper and laid the foundations for the Bavarians' first competitive defeat of the season. Neuer's outings have also been more rewarding.
Marty Sheargold, Australian journalist - The stupidity of the year
The European Women's Championship thrilled us all - the level of sport, the atmosphere, the fairness. Even though the Swiss lost their quarter-final match against the Spanish.
However, the fact that female footballers still have to put up with cheap and stupid clichés and insults is still a reality. One example was provided by 53-year-old Australian radio personality Marty Sheargold. He said of the Australian women's national team tests: "I'd rather hammer a nail through the head of my penis than watch that." Our advice: let him do it.
FC Biel - The surprise of the year
Challenge League club Xamax had to go through, followed by last year's finalists Lugano and finally even the Bernese Young Boys: FC Biel from the Promotion League eliminated all the higher-class teams on their way to the 2025 Cup final. And it also managed to draw 1:1 in the final. In the end, however, FC Basel won 4:1.
The Biel team surprised everyone, including individual players such as Brian Beyer, who now plays in the Super League at Winterthur - but the season ended on a bitter note. The fact that FC Biel lost the cup final was probably bearable. But the fact that he missed out on promotion in the final spurt of the season despite leading the table for months still hurts a little today.
Yann Sommer - The scene of the year
We all know the former national team goalkeeper as level-headed and calm. Nerves? He hardly shows any. But after the Champions League semi-final, which Yann Sommer won 4:3/3:3 with Inter Milan after one of the most exciting duels of the year against Barcelona, he showed emotions like hardly ever before.
Sommer, constantly criticized during his time at Bayern 2023 and also counted out by some in the national team at the end, fell to his knees, put his hands to his face and cried. He had saved Inter from the final with several brilliant saves. The Tifosi went wild, his teammates celebrated. And Sommer enjoyed it, visibly moved.
European Championship - the event of the year
Can Switzerland host the European Women's Championship? There were doubts before the tournament - and when the women's national team suffered a defeat against a junior team just a few days before the tournament, Pia Sundhage's team was ridiculed in many quarters. Wrongly so, as it soon turned out.
The players inspired the country with their closeness, passion and enthusiasm. The sporting highlight was the last group match against Finland: Riola Xhemaili scored in the 92nd minute to make it 1:1 and secure Switzerland's first ever place in a European Championship quarter-final. The stadium and the nation tremble.
The fans also make their mark on the tournament with fan marches and great emotions. 29 of 31 matches are sold out, 657,291 fans set a new European Championship attendance record. Even after Switzerland were knocked out, over 1.3 million people watched the final penalty shoot-out between England and Spain on TV. Women's football has finally arrived in society, girls flock to the clubs and the "women's national team" becomes the word of the year.
The sports images of the year 2025.
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Image: EPA
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The sports images of the year 2025.
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: IMAGO
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
Image: KEYSTONE
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Image: KEYSTONE
Image: EPA
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Image: KEYSTONE
