European football: From Ronaldo goals to Pogba’s millions - a record-breaking round-up of the 2016/17 season
Last weekend saw the final showcase of European football with the UEFA Champions League Final, and with it came an extension of a record held by a Spanish giant along with a new title for its most celebrated player.
Real Madrid came through victorious with a 4-1 triumph over Serie A side Juventus which stretched Los Blancos’ Guinness World Records title of Most wins of the football European Cup/Champions League by a team to 12. The club’s nearest rival to the title are Italy’s A.C Milan, who are currently stuck on seven wins of Europe’s most prestigious trophy.
Meanwhile, the final also saw Cristiano Ronaldo score twice, edging him further past Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (94) as the all-time leading scorer in the competition and holder of the prestigious Guinness World Records title for the Most Champions League goals with 105.
The 2016/17 season in European football has seen some amazing record breaking achievements not just in the Champions League but across domestic leagues too.
The season’s first major talking point in terms of records came in August with Paul Pogba (France) moving from Juventus (Italy) to Manchester United (UK) for a reported £89,121,900 (€105 million) to set a new Guinness World Records title for the Most expensive football player for a single transfer.
POGBA
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 9, 2016
6#POGBACKpic.twitter.com/J8zPNn3Y2N
The transfer surpassed the previous record fee paid by Real Madrid (Spain) to Tottenham Hotspur (UK) for the services of Gareth Bale (UK) in 2013 which stood at a staggering £85.30 million (€99.95 million).
Nevertheless, Pogba's impact at Manchester United did not propel them to Premier League glory, with Chelsea ruling the way.
Having already tied up the title with two games to spare, on the final day of the season Antonio Conte's side notched up their 30th Premier League victory setting a new Guinness World Records title for the Most matches won in a Premier League season by a team.
This eclipsed the previous record of 29 (also set by Chelsea) in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons.
The west London club’s tireless midfielder N'Golo Kanté (France) capped off a great season by making his way into our illustrious record books by achieving the title for the Most consecutive Premier League winners medals won by a player at different clubs, having won the title 12 months earlier with Leicester.
By achieving this feat he becomes the first player to do so in the English top flight since the start of the modern Premier League era.
Back in Conte's native country Italy, his former team Juventus stormed to their 33rd domestic title setting a Guinness World Records title for the Most wins of the top division in Italian football.
It’s a record title that the Turin-based club have dominated since the 1950’s. Prior to Juve’s dominance, Genoa enjoyed their spoils in the league, winning the then named Italian Football Championship and Prima Divisione nine times between 1898 and 1923.
Juventus’ fellow Champions League finalist Real Madrid also found fine form in their respective domestic league this season.
Real left it until the final day of their campaign to also claim their 33rd top division title which extends their Guinness World Records title for the Most wins of the top division in Spanish football.
This season’s triumph marked their first La Liga title since the 2011/12 season. Despite this lapse they’ve still won the top division nine times more than their nearest record competitors and El Clásico rivals Barcelona.
During the season Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to reach 100 career Champions League goals, where he has also been the top scorer in the competition for five consecutive seasons.
In the quarter-final and semi-final rounds of the competition, Ronaldo netted two hat-tricks, one behind his season best 2015/16 Guinness World Records title for the Most hat-tricks in a UEFA Champions League season.
Since leaving Real in 2015 former Los Blancos manager Carlos Ancelotti has guided Germany’s Bayern Munich to a hat-trick of amazing Guinness World Records titles this season.
Their fine league form ensured the clubs 27th top division title making them the Guinness World Records title holders for the Most wins of the top division in German football.
This title triumph also set them further apart from their Bundesliga counterparts by becoming Guinness World Records titles holders for the Most consecutive Bundesliga title wins by a football club with this being their fifth consecutive title, no other team has won the top division in German football consecutively on more than two occasions – Borussia Dortmund were the last club to win back-to-back titles from 2010 to 2012.
Bayern’s record breaking form extended beyond their domestic campaign, with their run in this season’s Champions League extending their record for the Most consecutive Champions League home match victories to 16 with their final victory coming in a 5-1 win over Arsenal in the last 16 knockout stage. The incredible streak began in 2014 and has seen Bayern score 58 goals and concede just nine.
Arsenal themselves are no strangers to record breaking achievements having gone the entire 2003/04 Premier League season unbeaten but it was their former ‘Invincibles’ player Kolo Touré who achieved a second unbeaten domestic league run, this time with new club Celtic F.C (UK).
After Celtic’s 2-0 victory over Hearts on the last day of the season they became the first team to go unbeaten in a Scottish Premiership football season.
Over the course of the campaign Celtic scored 106 goals and finished top of the table 30 points clear with 106 points ahead of second place Aberdeen.