As another eventful year of football comes to an end, Primenewsghana's Duah Michael sits back and decides on the best and worst performers of 2018 so let's start with the worst.Â
José Mourinho is just one of the managers to be featured but which household stars and nations also made the cut?
Germany
After an embarrassing and much-publicised exit at the group stages of the World Cup, Germany's 2018 got even worse as they continued to rack up defeats and set unwanted records. Six losses in a calendar year for the first time in German national team history is surely a number they will never repeat again, along with relegation from UEFA Nations League group A.
As much as it hurts to bow out this early, congratulations to #SWE and #MEX. We wish you good luck in the knockouts 👏 pic.twitter.com/6gbNpePRTm
— germanfootball_dfb (@DFB_Team_EN) June 27, 2018
With the 'World Champions curse' behind them, they'll hope to build for the future around youngsters Serge Gnabry, Thilo Kehrer and others.Â
José Mourinho
It was a tough year for the Special One. The Portuguese boss has often struggled in his third season at a club, and so it proved again at Manchester United where he apparently lost the faith of the players and results and performances reflected that, along with United's league position.
Read also: Top 10 African players of 2018
He did, however, have a few good moments, including the famous win at Juventus that resulted in THAT infamous reaction to the Juventus fans. And of course, the rumoured £24m payoff from United should help his mood as he prepares his next managerial move. Â
🙌 BEST OF 2018 🙌
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 27, 2018
This was peak Jose Mourinho 🤬
He rattled the Juventus fans and players at full time after Man Utd's late win 👀pic.twitter.com/Gcmuydl3uW
Alexis Sánchez
Sánchez got his move from Arsenal but life seems to have gotten worse for the Chilean in Manchester. Often played out of position or our injured, his time under Jose Mourinho was a barren one and that shows in his goal-scoring stats during the calendar year.
Alexis Sanchez will end 2018 with fewer Premier League goals than Chris Smalling & Patrick van Aanholt, the same number as Oumar Niasse & Lewis Dunk and only one more than Shane Long.
— Richard Jolly 🇺🇦 (@RichJolly) November 30, 2018
He'll be hoping that things turn around under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer once he returns to full fitness in 2019.
Julen Lopetegui
Political drama and managerial chaos have ruined Spain’s preparations in Russia. Head coach Julen Lopetegui was yesterday relieved of his duties because of a conflict involving a pre-arranged contract with Spanish giants Real Madrid. His announcement of the fact to the players, coupled with its appearance on Real’s official website, was unforgivable for the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales.
Lopetegui's subsequent reign at Real Madrid went on to become nothing short of a shambles. Was it worth it for him to flirt with the European Champions while he had the national job in his hands?
1947 - 2018-19 is the first time Real Madrid haven't had a positive goal difference after 10 La Liga games since the 1947-48 campaign. Average pic.twitter.com/kPKxuz1AKW
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 29, 2018
Ãlvaro Morata
Another Spaniard makes our top five in the shape of Chelsea striker Ãlvaro Morata. Morata was hardly solely to blame for Spain's disastrous World Cup exit, but that may have left mental scars which have lingered and affected his club form. Five Premier League goals in 14 appearances isn't a terrible ratio, but the fact that he's still not a first-team regular should be cause for concern.
2 - Alvaro Morata has scored in back-to-back games in the Premier League for the first time since November 2017. Restored. pic.twitter.com/2rWrZnCBG3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 4, 2018
It remains to be seen where the 26-year-old will be playing his football next season, but it's unlikely to be Chelsea.
We'll have Primenewsghana's Five Winners of 2018 up on the site in the next couple of days, watch out for it.Â