What's in a year?

At FootballToday, quite a lot actually.

With around 450 articles published in 2019 plus a new podcast, we've decided to pull together five pieces we feel nicely reflect the year’s biggest football issues and the diverse range of coverage we provide here at FootballToday.

With a diverse and quality range of contributors and features throughout the year, picking out five was no easy task (even if we did cheat with a few honourable mentions at the end), but nevertheless here are five stories feel best capture the essence of FootballToday and the biggest stories of 2019.

Shabab Hossain chats to Cheryl Salisbury ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup

We kick off with this lovely interview from one of our new contributors, Shabab Hossain, who spoke to Matildas legend Cherly Salisbury ahead of the Matildas World Cup tilt in France.

2019 was a bit of a mixed bag for women’s football in general and particularly in Australia (more on that below).

The hype and excitement generated for the Matildas in the lead up to and during the World Cup campaign were immense, whilst the PFA’s historic pay deal was a fantastic step forward for our elite female footballers.

Hossain’s interview with Salisbury will re-acquaint you with the anticipation we all felt ahead of the World Cup campaign and remind you of the path players like Salisbury had to walk to get the Matildas to where they are today.

Football culture problems in Australia are much deeper and broader than the Matildas

Few issues in 2019 captured the broader cultural and governance problems football in Australia faces than the unceremonious sacking of Alen Stajcic.

Bonita Mersiades’ piece from 15 February neatly surmises everything you need to know about the issue and whilst it was penned over 10 months ago, so much of it still rings true.

“The best interests of football” – what are they when it comes to the AFC election?

When Bonita Mersiades puts fingers to keyboards, she rarely misses.

Her insightful commentary piece on 1 April ahead of the AFC election analysed the choice before the FFA and its stated support for the incumbent president Shaikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain.

In the context of the #FreeHakeem campaign in support of Hakeem El-Araibi the question of FFA’s support for Al-Khalifa, who went on to win the campaign, was not probed any deeper than it was on FootballToday.

VicFootball archive unlocks incredible Victorian state league history

Of course, 2019 wasn’t all doom and gloom and – as always – there were plenty of feel-good stories from the football community.

One of those was undoubtedly the ongoing efforts of Tony Persoglia to ensure the history of our game isn’t lost in archive boxes and his unveiling of the VicFootball archive – which covers over 4,500 matches, 3,000 players, 100 referees and 31 clubs over 28 seasons of top-tier senior men’s football in Victoria.

Matthew Galea had a chat to Persoglia to find out what drives someone to complete that body of work and gain insights into some of the more fascinating aspects of the archive.

Diego Maradona: ‘You don’t know what you missed’

The 2019 documentary Diego Maradona offered a fantastic insight into the rise and fall of the Argentine legend.

Con Stamocostas was FootballToday’s man on the ground to review the documentary and his take on it – intertwined with his own memories of the man – makes for great reading.

Honourable Mentions

Picking five out of over 400 articles was a tough ask and there were a few more we enjoyed putting together and sharing with our audience.

Matthew Galea was on the ground in Yokohama to witness Ange Postecoglou’s historic triumph with Yokohama F. Marinos.

We were able to provide some fantastic coverage from on the ground but perhaps this feature best sums up what Postecoglou’s achievement means for the people and fans of Yokohama.

Sally Freedman was in Lyon for the Women’s World Cup final and her Postcard from Lyon was a fantastic tribute to a brilliant tournament and the world champions from the United States.

Stuart Thomas’ look at the A-League’s holding pattern and the slow but steady build required for the A-League is worth a revisit.

We even launched our own podcast!

We will be signing off 2019 with one more feature from Pablo Bateson later in the week, but until then, have a safe and merry Christmas.