It's the 2016 IMOTGP Awards!

Now that the European club season has ended, it's time for the stars of the football world to learn who has won the real prize - and we don't mean her.  We are talking about the 2015-16 IMOTGP European football awards!

Noemie didn't make the cut!

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Real Madrid.

The Champions League winners may not have been the best team in the world, although they pushed Barcelona to the limit in Spain. They endured a rocky season in which Rafa Benitez was dismissed and replaced by Zinedine Zidane.

They suffered through tremendous criticism since Cristiano Ronaldo was ripped by Adam Belgeri among others. That caused Zidane to fire back at Belgeri with a blistering rant in Madrid. And Zidane had the last laugh this past weekend when he encouraged the struggling Ronaldo, who fired home the winning penalty.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jamie Vardy, Leicester City.

Sure Luis Suarez scored 40 La Liga goals but he is a bellend. Gonzalo Higuain scored 36 Serie A goals to nearly double his closest competitor in Italy. Vardy, meanwhile, didn't lead the Premier League in goals and may not be the best player on his own team.

So why is Vardy the IMOTGP choice? It's because of his rise from obscurity to footballing greatness, reminiscent of rap impressario extraordinaire Jay-Z's rise to fame and fortune.  That under-the-radar story was spotlighted on the blog - the only outlet to compare Vardy and the Jiggaman and earned the English superstar the nod for this honor. When you transcend football and rap, you deserve IMOTGP player of the year!

FLOPS OF THE YEAR: Chelsea FC and Hertha Berlin (tie).

These teams wearing blue had plenty in common in that both wear blue. Chelsea were defending champions in England but faltered miserably leading to the demise of Jose Mourinho. 

Mou was later spotted watching a top Bundesliga clash in Berlin between Hertha and Dortmund. He was there since Hertha used defensive brilliance to contend for a Champions League spot.

Alas, the Berliners collapsed in epic fashion and finished in seventh place.  That's still three places higher than Chelsea finished in England, but both teams sucked when it counted the most.

USELESS TEAM OF THE YEAR THAT DID WELL: Tottenham Hotspur.

A second-place finish in the most expensive league in the world is better than this club usually fares. Instead they didn't finish second and finished third behind Arsenal! This when they had second in the bag.

Spurs were also thrashed by Dortmund in the Europa League, choosing to start reserves and embarrassing the club. They could have claimed a major European scalp like Liverpool achieved. Finally Tottenham failed to beat champions Leicester City in either league matchup and arch-rival Arsenal either time as well. What a waste of a season.

STRANGEST TEAM OF THE YEAR: Europa League champions Sevilla.

Did you know that in the top five European  leagues that only one club failed to win an away match in league play? That club is Sevilla - with 10 defeats and nine draws in La Liga play.

Los Rojiblancos also shipped eight goals in losing all three away games in the Champions League but a 1-0 victory over Juventus on Matchday 6 helped them avoid last place in the group and gave them another crack at the Europa League.

That's when Sevilla did what they do best - sweeping through the competition and even winning on the road against Athletic Bilbao. Their second-half masterclass against Liverpool in the final was a thing of beauty and four days later they took Barcelona to the wire in the Copa del Rey final.

We wish them well in the Supercup against Real Madrid in August!

UNDERRATED PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Chicharito, Bayer Leverkusen.

Chicharito struck 17 times in 28 matches for Bayer, leading them back to the Champions League with a third-place finish. It wasn't exactly a career revival since he proved he has been clutch by scoring the winning goal in a quarterfinal tie with Atletico Madrid a season ago for Real.

Still, the Mexican was in fine form with one of the Bundesliga's most attack-minded teams  and showed his dedication and professionalism by scoring on April 1 off the bench in a key victory over Wolfsburg just three days after your faithful blogger saw him play for Mexico. He's a quality striker and an icon in his home country and is proven to be the best CONCACAF has to offer to Europe.

THE HERTHA FAILED BUT WE DIDN'T AWARD:  Sassuolo.

While Hertha failed miserably to reach its target of the Champions League, there was an even better story in Italy with Sassuolo cementing a Europa League berth on the final day of the season over fancied AC Milan.

I Neroverdi entered Serie A for the first time in 2013-14, surviving by the skin of their teeths.  They showed staying power with a 12th-place showing the next season before a 61-point haul.

They had to sweat out a tight Coppa Italia final between Milan and Juve, but that went their way. Domenico Berardi and Sime Vrsaljko are top transfer targets for a club that has risen from nowhere to Europe in a three-year span.


INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: There's only one candidate ...

MATCH(ES) OF THE YEAR: The IMOTGP blog watched countless football matches and some deserve more mention than others.

The best were the Copa del Rey final and the two Bayern Munich-Juventus ties in Champions League. Finishing close behind was the second leg of the Dortmund-Liverpool tie.

In league matches, Bayer Leverkusen's rally from two goals down in the last 20 minutes for a 4-3 victory over Stuttgart was a good one as was Everton's 4-3 loss to Stoke City in a major collapse. Also Celta de Vigo's mid-week 4-1 thrashing of Barcelona in September was a lot of fun.

That's all from IMOTGP. We will move on to Copa America and the European championships and have major plans to pay top dollar to attend a huge game in one of those competitions this weekend!

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