What was your football highlight of 2009? Being a Leicester City fan, nothing could top promotion back to the Championship for me but elsewhere we had 12 months of tears and laughter, cheating, rants and the world's first £80million player.
It's a time to look back and reflect on the best and worst of what has happened. Stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres have graced 2009 but my player of the year is Wayne Rooney, who has grown from world-class talent to the talismanic leader of Manchester United and England.
United were always going to be weakened by Ronaldo going to Real Madrid but the way Rooney has thrived on the extra responsibility has been stunning. He has to be the chief goalscorer and shirt-seller at Old Trafford now. And so far he hasn't put a foot wrong.
It struck me how special he is when I went to Stamford Bridge earlier this season to see Chelsea play United. There were outstanding players on both teams but even in that company Rooney stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Besides winning a third Premier League title in a row, he scored 29 times for club and country in 2009, a great record for a player who offers more than just goals.
If he delivers at the World Cup, we'll be talking about him as the greatest English player of all-time alongside Tom Finney and Bobby Charlton.
Talking of England, Fabio Capello gets my vote as manager of the year, for getting to the World Cup without any palpitations and putting us in a position where we could win it. That is a huge turnaround for a team that didn't qualify for Euro 2008.
Capello has brought discipline to the set-up and given the players confidence. It might be a surprise that Premier League stars can lack self-belief but that was the case with England pre-Capello.
The highlight was the 5-1 win against Croatia in September. Significantly, Steve Gerrard and Frank Lampard scored twice each - at one stage people didn't think they could play in the same team.
The year was mind-boggling for the money spent on transfers. Manchester City spent £135m, Real Madrid beat that on just two players, Ronaldo and Kaka.
The best business was done in January, however, when Tottenham paid £15m to Portsmouth for Jermain Defoe. Always a good striker, Defoe has become lethal in the last 12 months, improving tremendously in his penalty box awareness. The buy of the year in my view. He's worked with former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright and that shows he is prepared to listen and learn.
Defoe is at the stage now where I would love to see him play with Wayne as the No 1 strike partnership for England. My instinct says that they would be brilliant together. Over to you, Fabio.
Alberto Aquilani cost more than Defoe - but you wouldn't have realised it from his appearances this season. At a reported £20m, he's got to be the worst buy. He was meant to replace Alonso but spent the first three months injured and hasn't been pushed into the team by Rafa Benitez now that he is fit. It suggests the Liverpool boss is not confident about his ability to fit into the English game.
Benitez came up with the best soundbite of the year. But, although funny, it ended up rebounding on Liverpool. His line, 'I want to talk about facts', while ranting about Sir Alex Ferguson in January was great entertainment.
But the timing was strange - Liverpool were top of the table and Benitez didn't have to say anything at all. The next day his side were held by Stoke and never recovered the title initiative.
At least Liverpool had a reasonable season, Newcastle's relegation was a huge shock. The turmoil off the field finally cost them on it.
Best goal of the year came last weekend by Wigan's Maynor Figueroa against Stoke. To score from inside your own half is not easy – even Pele managed to miss from there. Figueroa's shot could not have been struck more sweetly.
We have all the Premier League games on a Saturday coming in on a live feed at the BBC. One of the biggest reactions from those of us watching in 2009 wasn't for a goal but for Jimmy Bullard's goal celebration against Manchester City.
His impression of a finger-wagging Hull boss Phil Brown had everyone bursting out with spontaneous laughter and applause. As Alan Shearer said later, it wasn't just the best goal celebration of the year but maybe of all-time.
On the negative side, Thierry Henry became the biggest villain of the year when his handball sent France rather than the Republic of Ireland to the World Cup. The striker has built a fantastic reputation and it was shattered in a moment.
I just wish the culture in football would have allowed the referee to ask him outright if he'd handled. I am sure Henry would have been honest if put on the spot and all the bitter recriminations since could have been avoided.
Most sadly of all, we lost one of my greatest role models and inspirations in football this year when Sir Bobby Robson died in July after a long battle against cancer.
It was so fitting that his funeral service in Durham turned into the greatest football gathering of the year, where I was able to catch up with former Italia 90 team-mates Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne and two of my former team-mates from Barcelona, Jose Alexanco and Txiki Begiristain.
Bobby's passing meant 2009 was a bittersweet year for football. Rooney could make 2010 really special.
It's a time to look back and reflect on the best and worst of what has happened. Stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres have graced 2009 but my player of the year is Wayne Rooney, who has grown from world-class talent to the talismanic leader of Manchester United and England.
United were always going to be weakened by Ronaldo going to Real Madrid but the way Rooney has thrived on the extra responsibility has been stunning. He has to be the chief goalscorer and shirt-seller at Old Trafford now. And so far he hasn't put a foot wrong.
It struck me how special he is when I went to Stamford Bridge earlier this season to see Chelsea play United. There were outstanding players on both teams but even in that company Rooney stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Besides winning a third Premier League title in a row, he scored 29 times for club and country in 2009, a great record for a player who offers more than just goals.
If he delivers at the World Cup, we'll be talking about him as the greatest English player of all-time alongside Tom Finney and Bobby Charlton.
Talking of England, Fabio Capello gets my vote as manager of the year, for getting to the World Cup without any palpitations and putting us in a position where we could win it. That is a huge turnaround for a team that didn't qualify for Euro 2008.
Capello has brought discipline to the set-up and given the players confidence. It might be a surprise that Premier League stars can lack self-belief but that was the case with England pre-Capello.
The highlight was the 5-1 win against Croatia in September. Significantly, Steve Gerrard and Frank Lampard scored twice each - at one stage people didn't think they could play in the same team.
The year was mind-boggling for the money spent on transfers. Manchester City spent £135m, Real Madrid beat that on just two players, Ronaldo and Kaka.
The best business was done in January, however, when Tottenham paid £15m to Portsmouth for Jermain Defoe. Always a good striker, Defoe has become lethal in the last 12 months, improving tremendously in his penalty box awareness. The buy of the year in my view. He's worked with former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright and that shows he is prepared to listen and learn.
Defoe is at the stage now where I would love to see him play with Wayne as the No 1 strike partnership for England. My instinct says that they would be brilliant together. Over to you, Fabio.
Alberto Aquilani cost more than Defoe - but you wouldn't have realised it from his appearances this season. At a reported £20m, he's got to be the worst buy. He was meant to replace Alonso but spent the first three months injured and hasn't been pushed into the team by Rafa Benitez now that he is fit. It suggests the Liverpool boss is not confident about his ability to fit into the English game.
Benitez came up with the best soundbite of the year. But, although funny, it ended up rebounding on Liverpool. His line, 'I want to talk about facts', while ranting about Sir Alex Ferguson in January was great entertainment.
But the timing was strange - Liverpool were top of the table and Benitez didn't have to say anything at all. The next day his side were held by Stoke and never recovered the title initiative.
At least Liverpool had a reasonable season, Newcastle's relegation was a huge shock. The turmoil off the field finally cost them on it.
Best goal of the year came last weekend by Wigan's Maynor Figueroa against Stoke. To score from inside your own half is not easy – even Pele managed to miss from there. Figueroa's shot could not have been struck more sweetly.
We have all the Premier League games on a Saturday coming in on a live feed at the BBC. One of the biggest reactions from those of us watching in 2009 wasn't for a goal but for Jimmy Bullard's goal celebration against Manchester City.
His impression of a finger-wagging Hull boss Phil Brown had everyone bursting out with spontaneous laughter and applause. As Alan Shearer said later, it wasn't just the best goal celebration of the year but maybe of all-time.
On the negative side, Thierry Henry became the biggest villain of the year when his handball sent France rather than the Republic of Ireland to the World Cup. The striker has built a fantastic reputation and it was shattered in a moment.
I just wish the culture in football would have allowed the referee to ask him outright if he'd handled. I am sure Henry would have been honest if put on the spot and all the bitter recriminations since could have been avoided.
Most sadly of all, we lost one of my greatest role models and inspirations in football this year when Sir Bobby Robson died in July after a long battle against cancer.
It was so fitting that his funeral service in Durham turned into the greatest football gathering of the year, where I was able to catch up with former Italia 90 team-mates Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne and two of my former team-mates from Barcelona, Jose Alexanco and Txiki Begiristain.
Bobby's passing meant 2009 was a bittersweet year for football. Rooney could make 2010 really special.
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