Football’s new frontier: Bellingham and Bonmati overshadowed by a big shift in 2023
It was an off-hand line from a senior European football executive, but one that has been echoed a lot over the last 12 months.
“Well, we’ll take them to court.”
It is a threat as potent in modern football as any Jude Bellingham burst, any Erling Haaland finish or any Aitana Bonmati pass. These three players marked themselves out as the stars of 2023, but there has been an element of producing relatively disposable moments in an increasingly predictable sport, before we get to the really meaningful action of what happens off the pitch.
This was after all a year when a King’s Counsel literally had a banner made about him, royals from autocracies were thanked and huge clubs made videos celebrating a court ruling as if it was the signing of Kylian Mbappe.
This has been the legacy of 2023 for football. It was the year when a series of factors and fault lines converged to finally move the most influential action off the
