With the story of the 2022-23 European club football season now having been fully told, there's no better time to take a look back and think about how each of the most pivotal moments along the way shaped a season full of major highlights and high drama.
Do note that World Cup moments will not be included as this post only covers European club football.
These are, in my opinion, the 10 standout moments of the 2022-23 season:
Sadio Mané signs for Bayern Munich (June 22, 2022)
Bayern's acquisition of Mané from Liverpool for the shockingly low transfer fee of €32 million sent shockwaves throughout the football universe. After an extremely successful six-year stint in Merseyside, the Senegalese winger was widely tipped to be the signing which would make Bayern clear Champions League favourites and arguably the team to beat during the upcoming season.
However, Mané would somehow go on to fail to live up to even his paltry price tag. Poor play on the field as well as locker-room issues off it derailed his season and likely cost Bayern a Champions League title - and remarkably, almost a Bundesliga title as well.
Erling Haaland signs for Manchester City (July 1, 2022)
City's signing of Haaland ended up being the polar opposite of Bayern's signing of Mané. Haaland was also signed for a far lower transfer fee than was expected - just €60 million. Haaland went on to score goal after goal, breaking multiple records along the way as City ended up claiming a historic Treble.
The Norwegian centre-forward's sheer dominance up front has also positioned him as the front-runner to win this season's Ballon d'Or. The truly frightening part about of all this for City's opponents is the fact that Haaland is still just 22 - there could easily be a decade or more of the same yet to come.
Manchester City 6-3 Manchester United (October 2, 2022)
The first Manchester derby of the season served as a preview of what was about to be unleashed upon the football world. The final scoreline didn't even do City's dominance justice - they were 6-1 ahead before taking their foot off the gas late into the match.
Although nobody was disputing that this was certainly a formidable Manchester City team prior to this match, this match gave many the first inkling that we were witnessing something truly historic brewing.
Juventus incur 15-point penalty in Serie A (January 20, 2023)
Juve's season was derailed after the FIGC struck the Turin club with a 15-point penalty for false accounting. This point penalty all but ensured that they would fail to qualify for next season's Champions League - something which had not happened since finishing seventh in the league in the 2010-11 season.
Three months later, Juve's point penalty would be overturned, giving the Bianconeri a glimmer of hope - at least temporarily. Little did they know what would soon be about to befall them...
Bayern Munich 4-2 Borussia Dortmund (April 2, 2023)
After a turbulent run of matches which saw Bayern's lead atop the Bundesliga dramatically shrink as a rampaging Dortmund cut the gap with seemingly every passing matchday, Bayern replaced head coach Julian Nagelsmann with Thomas Tuchel, who helmed Dortmund from 2015 to 2017.
Der Klassiker was Tuchel's first match in charge at the Bavarian club, and as has been invariably been the case for some years now, Bayern had no trouble dispatching Dortmund, going 4-0 ahead before conceding two late goals. This victory would go on to be pivotal to Bayern's chances of winning a record-extending 11th consecutive league title.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli (May 4, 2023)
Napoli's remarkable Serie A campaign reached its climax when they clinched a first Scudetto since 1990 with a 1-1 draw against Udinese. Victor Osimhen's goal put the seal on what ended up being a season for the ages for the Campanian club.
Napoli's league title victory also provided a sense of closure with Argentina having won the World Cup just a few months prior. The narrative surrounding Argentina's victory was that they did it in honour of the legendary Diego Maradona, who passed away at the age of 60 in November 2020. Understandably, Napoli were said to have done the same.
Juventus incur 10-point penalty in Serie A (May 22, 2023)
Having had their prior 15-point penalty rescinded in April, Juve may have thought that they were in the clear. However, this would not be true at all. Juve were once again punished for false accounting - this time with a 10-point penalty.
This deduction of 10 points once and for all buried Juve's chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League. Juve would go on to finish the season seventh in the league - their worst finish in 12 years. Juve even missed out on Europa League qualification and ended up having to settle for a spot in next season's Europa Conference League.
Köln 1-2 Bayern Munich (May 27, 2023)
Arguably the most pulsating Bundesliga title race of all time could not possibly have had a more dramatic conclusion. Borussia Dortmund's late-season surge coupled with a slump on Bayern's end left Dortmund poised to claim a first Bundesliga title since 2012. Despite only managing a 2-2 draw against Mainz, Dortmund appeared set to win the league as Bayern were drawing 1-1 against Köln with just a few minutes left.
Then, in a stunning turn of events, Jamal Musiala scored Bayern's winning goal in the 89th minute. This last-gasp winner ensured that Bayern would win the league for the 11th season in a row and deny Dortmund the title in what had been Dortmund's best season in more than a decade.
Zlatan Ibrahimović announces retirement (June 4, 2023)
Ibrahimović brought the curtain down on an iconic 24-year career at the age of 41. With 12 league titles and four domestic cups to his name, the Swede retired as among the greatest players to have never won the Champions League - an honour which somehow eluded him for his entire career.
At his peak, there was no centre-forward who could have ever combined power, athleticism, finesse, and technique in the same package as how Ibrahimović could. "Ibra" truly put together an inimitable career in so many ways - on the field as well as off it.
Manchester City 1-0 Inter Milan (June 10, 2023)
Manchester City's 2022-23 team sealed their place among the greatest club teams of all time by beating Inter Milan to claim the Champions League and the Treble with it. City became just the seventh team in the modern era to achieve this feat.
There's a plausible case to be made that we have just witnessed the greatest season of football any club team has ever put together. With this victory, Pep Guardiola now has a strong case as perhaps the greatest coach in the history of football while the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, İlkay Gündoğan, and Erling Haaland further burnished their already-burgeoning legacies.
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