A year of sport between joys, torments and lost bets
Milan wins the Scudetto, Cagliari goes down to Serie B, Torres is fished back into Lega Pro, the entire board of directors of Juve resigns following the investigation into capital gains. Ganna breaks track cycling hour record, tennis legends Federer and Serena Williams retire. Orro and Egonu's Italvolley takes bronze at the World Cup. Cagliari, via Liverani: Ranieri is back
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A year of great sporting events comes to an end. The Qatar World Cup, which began and ended amid controversy, has just crowned the world champion. But 2022 was also the year of Milan's Scudetto, Real Madrid's fourteenth Champions League, Cagliari's relegation to Serie B and the great success of the Italian volleyball team, third in the World Cup. In Sardinia the playoffs played by Olbia shine and the repechage of Torres in LegaPro.
Fourth stage: the main sporting events of 2022
January
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic loses his appeal against the cancellation of his visa to stay in Australia and on 16 January he was expelled from the country . The decision resulted in his exclusion from the Australian Open , one of the world's top tennis tournaments, which Djokovic had won eight times in the past 11 years. The cancellation of the visa was decided due to Djokovic's positions against the Covid vaccine.
February
In February, Italy closed the Beijing Winter Olympics with 17 medals : 2 golds, 7 silvers and 8 bronzes.
March
The debut in the blue against North Macedonia of Cagliari captain Joao Pedro, who in the meantime moved to Fenerbahçe, was useless. On 24 March, at the Barbera stadium in Palermo, a goal by Trajkovski in the 92nd minute eliminated Italy, which did not participate in the World Cup in Qatar. After Russia 2018, another bitterness for the Azzurri who dominate the match but are unable to take advantage of the many goals created especially with Berardi. In the playoff final Macedonians will be defeated by Portugal.
April
On April 30, the sports agent Mino Raiola died in Milan of a lung disease . He was 54 years old. Among his best-known clients in Italy, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to whom he was bound up to the end by an almost fraternal friendship. Star players like Nedved, champions like Pogba, jewels like Haaland, but also Balotelli and Donnarumma, to stay in Italy, are now millionaires (also) thanks to the negotiations set up by Raiola.
May
On May 4, with a draw against Entella, Olbia's adventure in the playoffs for Serie B ended . On May 22, while Stefano Pioli's Milan won its nineteenth Scudett o , Cagliari lived a psychodrama at the Penzo in Venice . With Salernitana defeated 1-4 at home by Udinese, it would have been enough to beat the orange and green players and win salvation. Instead, at the end of the match (0-0 with the bottom in the standings), came the bitterest relegation in the over 100-year history of the rossoblù club. On May 29, the Australian Jai Hindley won the 105th edition of the cycling Giro d'Italia . By beating Rangers on penalties in Seville on 18 May, the Germans of Eintracht Frankfurt lifted the Europa League . On 28 May , Carletto Ancelotti's Real Madrid won its fourteenth Champions League title in Paris . In Tirana, three days before, Roma won the first Conference League in history.
June
On June 8, Cagliari formalizes the new coach: it is Fabio Liverani .
July
On 24 July the Danish Jonas Vingegaard triumphs in the cycling Tour de France . On the podium, with him, also the defending champion Pogacar and Thomas.
August
After winning the Serie D playoffs, Torres received the official communication of the repechage in the third series on August 3rd . At the European Athletics Championships held in Belgrade in mid-August, Filippo Tortu finished third in the two hundred meters . Dalia Kaddari, always in the 200m, crosses the prestigious finish line of the final . The 4X100 relay did not make it to the final, without Tortu, Jacobs and Desalu: the team of Sardinians Lorenzo Patta and Hillary Wanderson Polanco Rijo, with Matteo Melluzzo and Ali Chituru. Turkey's appeal is decisive.
September
On 15 September Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player in history, announced on his Twitter profile that the Laver Cup was his last tournament : «I'm 41 years old. I've played over 1500 games in 24 years. Now I have to recognize when it's time to end my racing career." At the beginning of September , Serena Williams also announced her retirement from tennis, after her elimination in the third round of the 2022 US Open in a match against Ajla Tomljanović. After eliminating Serbia, Italbasket's adventure at the European Championships, won by Spain, ended in the quarter-finals.
October
Italy's dreams in the 2022 Women's Volleyball World Cup are shattered against a phenomenal Brazil. The blues of a superlative Alessia Orro, two days later, will win the bronze by beating the United States . At the end of the game there is a controversy linked to racism. Protagonist Paola Egonu, who announced her farewell to the national team: "They asked me why I'm Italian, this was my last game". Luckily the alarm seems to have disappeared. A few days earlier, on 8 October, Filippo Ganna's great feat: on the track of the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, he set the new hour record with 56.792 km . The previous record, established in August, belonged to the Briton Dan Bigham with 55.548 km. The relationship between Cagliari and the diesse Stefano Capozucca and the general manager Mario Passetti broke off .
November
Nereo Bonato is the new director of Cagliari. On 28 November, like a bolt from the blue, the president Andrea Agnelli and the entire Juventus board of directors, including Pavel Nedved and Maurizio Arrivabene, resigned : the disputes by Consob on capital gains were decisive. Max Verstappen wins the Formula One world championship and Red Bull the constructors' championship.
December
Sinisa Mihajlovic died in Rome on 16 December. Argentina wins the World Cup in Qatar by beating France . Croatia is third, thanks to the 2-1 victory over Morocco. Fabio Liverani is sacked, with Cagliari fourteenth in the standings. On 23 December, the club announces the return of Claudio Ranieri.
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THE PHOTO GALLERY
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The stages:
December 20 – The war in Ukraine, the death of Elizabeth, the protests for Mahsa, the Qatargate: the facts in the world of 2022
