Manchester United, Ryder Cup and Lions tour: 12 sport storylines for 2025 | OneFootball

Hamilton’s new challenge

Next season one narrative will surely dominate Formula One when Lewis Hamilton dons his new scarlet race suit and climbs into a Ferrari for the first competitive session at the opening race, in Australia. His move from Mercedes after 12 seasons and six titles was a huge shock and this new start could not be more gripping. How will he fare in a new team at the age of 40, a new culture at Maranello, a team that has a history of making and breaking drivers? Better still the prospect of him ending Ferrari’s drivers’ title drought that now stretches back to 2007 and in so doing claiming a record-breaking eighth world championship across three different teams. Or will it be a testing and turbulent opening year, far from his comfort zone? One way or another Hamilton and Ferrari will be impossible to ignore and it’s mouth-watering stuff. Giles Richards

Everton’s move to stunning new home

Everton’s successful achievements under the ownership of Farhad Moshiri can be counted on one finger but that digit can point to a genuine and potentially transformative legacy in the form of a magnificent new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock. Costs have risen from £500m to £800m and several burdensome loans have been taken to get this far, but there is no disputing the end result is a spectacular addition to the Liverpool waterfront. If only other developments in the city were of the same architectural standard. Bramley-Moore will open at the start of the 2025-26 season and more than compensates for the closure of Goodison Park. Andy Hunter

Lions ready to roar down under

Going back to 1989, the three most recent Lions tours of Australia have been settled by a single match. Aside from the Wallabies’ 2001 victory, meanwhile, the visitors have been dominant, winning every series since 1950. Australia’s woeful display at the 2023 Rugby World Cup sparked fears of an uncompetitive meeting in 2025, but the hosts’ resurgence under Joe Schmidt has renewed hope of an entertaining series. There is nothing quite like a Lions tour anywhere else in sport, and there seems a decent chance of the third and final Test, on 2 August in Sydney, deciding the series. Luke McLaughlin

Super Bowl half-time show

I don’t know a thing about the NFL apart from the fact that I’ll be tuning in to watch Kendrick Lamar’s Half-time Show on 9 February. Outside sport (and serious news), Kendrick v Drake was the biggest battle of the year. The two rappers accused each other of being short, Canadian and a number of other heinous crimes in a bitter feud in which Kendrick took the victory with his hit diss track Not Like Us. With the curtain being brought down on Diddy I’m excited to get back to the music. Oh yeah, and the football. Xaymaca Awoyungbo

Full stadiums at Women’s Rugby World Cup

The Women’s Rugby World Cup being hosted in England is set to be a gamechanger for the sport. More than 220,000 tickets have already been bought and the final is believed to have sold out. The Red Roses are also favourites to lift the trophy and the impact that could have on women’s rugby in the country could be huge. I’m looking forward to a tournament full of amazing rugby but also the impact that will be made off of it, too. The game is growing so quickly and seeing a sold-out Twickenham, now called Allianz Stadium, will be an emotional and groundbreaking moment. Sarah Rendell

Manchester United’s transfer strategy

It will most likely be the summer when Ruben Amorim makes his mark at Manchester United but what happens leading up to that point – and thereafter – stands to be the must-see drama of the year. The manager did not want the job at Old Trafford during the season, for obvious reasons, and the first challenge is to navigate to the end of it unscathed. There is so much to turn around and so little time on the training pitch to do it, particularly as he overhauls the playing system. No one expects miracles but equally no one wants a lost season. The Europa League could be huge. The sheer scrutiny of Amorim’s every move will be wild. Ditto the as will the expectation levels in August. David Hytner

Wiegman faces a Dutch reunion

On Wednesday 9 July Zurich will be the only place to be as England and the Netherlands meet in the Women’s Euros, for a game that will not only feature two of the best teams in the world going head to head but also two of the best supported. The Dutch travel in great numbers and they will be sure to pack the streets of Zurich as they sing “naar links, naar rechts” on their walk to the stadium, making for a special atmosphere. Add to that the reunion of the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, with her former side and her native country and you can guarantee a sporting evening to remember. Tom Garry

County Championship summer No 135

Each year, for a few years, it has felt like the County Championship could slip quietly away, squashed under the big boots of franchise Twenty20 cricket. Yet here it is moving, albeit with a limp, into Championship summer No 135, with new kids ready to make their names in the footsteps of Jacob Bethell, Gus Atkinson and Harry Brook. Perhaps start the season at Lord’s, where two troubled former giants, Middlesex and Lancashire, pull on their new boots on 4 April. Then to Chesterfield in June, Cheltenham or Scarborough in late July. However, I’m not putting my hand up for Yorkshire v Durham at Headingley on 27 September – hot-water bottle and full length jacket essential. Tanya Aldred

Potential football boost for the north-east

I’m looking forward to the Championship promotion race helping achieve the “levelling up” that Boris Johnson and co failed to. More specifically I’m hoping that Sunderland and Middlesbrough can win places in next season’s Premier League. Quite apart from offering the top tier a much better geographical balance, the return of those two north-east clubs should prove an economic, and psychological, boost for teams from two of the region’s most deprived areas. So fingers crossed for Sunderland’s manager, Régis Le Bris, and his Boro counterpart, Michael Carrick. Ditto Leeds and their similarly likable head coach, Daniel Farke. The Premier League will be a better place with full houses at the Stadium of Light, the Riverside and Elland Road. Louise Taylor

A competitive Ashes

The men’s Ashes in Australia has become a dull and predictable affair. England turn up and quickly implode; Joe Root can’t get a ton; someone called Mitchell is unplayable; English wins are restricted to sessions, never an entire match; the whitewash looms after defeat in the third Test. And repeat. The hope is that this upcoming round will be more competitive, with an ageing Australian side up against Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s freewheelers. Here’s to a scoreline of 2-2 heading into the SCG with Jimmy Anderson swapping his tracksuit for whites after a dramatic injury crisis. Taha Hashim

Summer Series v Club World Cup

This may be a bit nerdy but I’m interested in seeing if and how the Premier League makes its return to the United States. Its inaugural Summer Series took place in 2023, with the six-team friendly tournament drawing an average crowd of 44,000 to matches in five different US cities (this despite only one of the nominal “big six”, Chelsea, featuring). Next summer the Premier League is expected to go again and immediately after the conclusion of Fifa’s gilded, perhaps bloated, Club World Cup. Big names have been mooted to take part and given the ongoing backdrop of legal discord between domestic leagues and Fifa over the expansion of the match-day calendar, it will be interesting to see how the Series fares against its more vaunted competitor. Paul MacInnes

Europe’s great opportunity

If Europe do not win this Ryder Cup on American soil, you wonder if they ever will. The American captain, Keegan Bradley, is highly likely to qualify for his own team. An issue relating to payments for US players quickly descended into a public relations disaster. The public are grumpy, which is no shock at $750 a ticket. Bethpage in New York will be wild, raucous and potentially out of hand. That is the outside-the-ropes scene. Inside, Europe have a wonderful chance not only to retain the cup but place an end to the boringly predictable scenario where home sides prevail in this event. No pressure, Luke Donald. Ewan Murray

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