✋ things to look forward to in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣4️⃣ | OneFootball

2023 was a momentous year for football with no shortage of enjoyment or storylines.

But what do the next 12 months have in store?

Here are five things to get excited about …

A return to summer tournaments

Fun though the World Cup in Qatar was, it felt slightly surreal to be watching major international tournaments on the run-up to Christmas.

But fear not, normal service will be resumed this coming summer with Euro 2024 and the Copa América both kicking off in their traditional mid-June slots.

The former promises to be a crowded field of potential winners with France and England installed as the early joint-favourites, while hosts Germany sit a narrow third.

At the Copa América, Lionel Messi will be aiming to bookend his ‘Last Dance’ chapter by leading Argentina to back-to-back crowns in his adoptive United States.

And if neither of those sate the appetite for summer football, the Olympics kicks off a week after the showpiece in Miami, so you’re covered well into the new season.

Enthralling title races across Europe

There really has never been a better time to be invested in the title races across Europe’s top five leagues.

The Premier League sees a top three of Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City barely separated, while Arsenal sit just behind heading into the new year.

Only goal difference currently separates Real Madrid and Girona at LaLiga’s summit, with the Catalan side firmly installed as this season’s early success story.

Bayer Leverkusen are threatening to see Bayern Munich’s name wiped off the Meisterschale for a first time in 11 years after finishing as the Bundesliga winter champion.

Meanwhile in Serie A, Inter and Juventus have pulled away from the chasing pack but there is little between them as Max Allegri’s men sit just two points off the summit.

In Ligue 1, the gulf between reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain and Nice sits at an equally reachable five points, while Monaco are breathing down the latter’s neck.

Strap yourself in for even more twists and turns between now and when all is said and done at the end of May.

The rise of the next generation

The previous calendar year belonged to Jude Bellingham but the newly-crowned Golden Boy is set to be joined by further prodigious talents in 2024.

Manchester City have moved quickly to all but snap up River Plate’s Claudio Echeverri, who is the latest Argentine teenager being tipped as the new Lionel Messi.

Gabriel Moscardo is heading to Paris Saint-Germain while compatriot Vitor Roque has already moved to Barcelona some six months earlier than scheduled.

Beyond the new arrivals, Arda Güler will be aiming to prove that comparisons with Mesut Özil are justified after a injury-plagued start to life at Real Madrid.

Elsewhere, João Neves is continuing to flourish at Benfica and Roony Bardghji has already begun to reap rewards after Copenhagen reached the Champions League’s last-16 stage.

There’s also the small matter of the summer tournaments throwing up previously unheralded gems to add to this burgeoning new breed.

The ‘new’ Champions League

Beginning next season, the Champions League is preparing to undergo something of a facelift.

A supposed antidote to the European Super League’s threat, the continent’s biggest tournament will adopt a ‘Swiss model’ of 36 teams competing in a league table.

Despite the group format officially scrapped, each club plays eight matches based on coefficient rankings in a first phase running from mid-September until late-January.

Thursday nights are no longer reserved for the Europa League and Conference, either, with Europe’s elite set for a non-traditional matchday on selected weeks.

It seems chaotic and potentially confusing but might just help freshen up a competition which had long become stale, predictable and unbecoming of its prestige.

An end to the Mbappé saga

Technically more of a relief than something to relish, but the new year should finally herald a belated end to the saga of Kylian Mbappé’s future.

The France captain’s deal at Paris Saint-Germain is set to expire in the summer, with Real Madrid waiting in the wings to snap him up on a free transfer.

An exceptional talent though Carlo Ancelotti’s side will be getting, the wider football world is no longer watching developments on Mbappé with the same anticipation as previously.

Maybe that’s because the on-again/off-again nature of Los Blancos’ lengthy courtship has become so tiresome that many have already tuned out to the whole charade.

Will he, won’t he? Does anyone really care at this stage?