After a long wait since the 1989/90 season, the iconoclasts of English football, Liverpool Football Club can finally heave a sigh of relief that the league title is coming to Anfield one more time.
Though they have had their destiny in their hands all through the season by proving to be such a utterly dominant force blistering every opposition, it is Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat of second-placed Manchester City that put the league title beyond any other contender with a whole nine games left to play.
So, while congratulations are in order for Liverpool, let’s take a look at 30 things which have happened during their 30-year wait for a 19th league title….
1. In 1990, the exchange rate was N7.39 (N10.70 Black Market Rate) to the US Dollar in 1990. In 2020, it has skyrocketed to N379.80 (over N460 Black Market Rate) to the US Dollar.
2. Since 1990, Nigeria has had eight heads of state/presidents: Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari.
3. Nigeria ended military rule in 1999 with the return to civil rule and has enjoyed 21 straight years of democracy.
4. The bus fare from Lagos to Enugu has increased from 25 Naira in 1990 to seven thousand naira today.
5. Music star Davido was born, went to nursery, primary, secondary, university; did NYSC and became a millionaire.
6. Anthony Joshua was born, learned to wear boxing gloves, grew to six feet plus, went professional and has had 24 fights with 23 wins, 21 of them by knockouts and just a solitary loss to become the unified world heavyweight boxing champion.
7. Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel came to Old Trafford, won five Premier League titles, gave birth to his son who also won the title with Leicester City.
8. Lionel Messi stopped wearing nappies, learned to tie soccer boots, joined Barcelona, won four Champions League, grew beards, got married and had two children.
9. Barack Hussein Obama became the first blackman to be elected President of the United States and the 44th in its history. He served for eight years.
10. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube have been created since the last time Liverpool won the league.
11. The old English First Division was changed to the Premier League in 1992 with Manchester United winning the first edition
12. There have been six different winners of the Premier League in 29 years (Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Leicester City, Blackburn Rovers) before Liverpool finally won in 2019/20.
13. Manchester United have won the Premier League three times in a row on two occasions, 1999 – 2001 and 2007-2009; United, as well as Chelsea and Manchester City have also won it back-to-back.
14. Arsene Wenger came to England, won three Premier League titles and set the record of most PL seasons managed – 22 seasons – before leaving.
15. Petr Cech came to the Premier League and set the record of most clean sheets by a goalkeeper – 202 – before retiring from the game.
16. Gareth Barry came through the Premier League and set a record of the most appearances in the competition – 653 games between 2 May 1998 to 24 February 2018 – before calling it quits.
17. Ryan Giggs started his Premier League career and left after setting a record for most seasons played – 22 from 1992/93 to 2013/14.
18. Since 1990 when Liverpool last lifted the title, their arch-rivals Manchester United have won the EPL 13 times, Bayern Munich have won 19 of their 29 Bundesliga titles; Barcelona won LaLiga 16 times while PSG won Ligue 1 eight times.
19. The old European Cup was changed to a new format and rechristened the UEFA Champions League and there have been 13 different winners since then – (Red Star Belgrade, Barcelona, Marseille, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Porto, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea) since
20. There have been seven editions of the Olympic Games (Barcelona ’92, Atlanta ’96, Sydney 2000, Athens ’04, Beijing ’08, London 2012, Rio 2016). Another edition would have held in 2020 but for the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
21. Eight (8) FIFA World Cups have been played: Italia ‘90, USA ‘94, France ‘98, Korea/Japan 2002, Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.
22. The FIFA World Cup was expanded from the former 24 teams to a larger 32-team format at the France 1998 tournament.
23. Germany became the first European nation to win the FIFA World Cup on South American soil in 2014 while South Africa became the first African country to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010.
24. FIFA created the Women’s World Cup which has now been staged eight times since 1991 with four different winners (USA, Norway, Japan, Germany)
25. There have been 15 different editions of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Egypt winning four and Cameroon winning on another three occasions.
26. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs have built and moved into brand new stadiums in the 30 years since Liverpool last won the league.
27. There have been 40 different Boxing heavyweight champions of the world since 1990.
28. Michael Jordan won the NBA with the Chicago Bulls six times, retired three times (1993, 1998 and 2003) and LeBron James won three times.
29. American Basketball legend Kobe Bryant began his career, won 5 NBA championships, 2 NBA Finals MVP and an NBA Most Valuable Player award, retired and then lost his life alongside his daughter in an air crash in Calabasas, California on the 26th January 2020.
30. The old Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 after the Cold War with the United States of America which lasted between 1947-1991 and the country broken into 15 separate republics.
