Major events in sports world in 2019

ANKARA (AA) - Here are the major sports events that took place in the year of 2019.

JANUARY

Jan.1:

- Turkish defenders Merih Demiral and Ozan Kabak are named on the UEFA’s “50 for the future” list. This list consisted of 50 players who have the potential to be Europe’s rising stars in 2019.

Jan.11 :

- UEFA, European football's governing body, announced the Team of the Year 2018. Fans voted online to select players. Superstars Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) were in this team.

Jan. 21:

- Argentine football player Emiliano Sala gets killed in a plane crash in the English Channel. Sala, 28, was on his way to join his new club Cardiff City from Nantes.

Jan. 26:

- Japan's Naomi Osaka, 22, beats Petra Kvitova 2-1 to gain the 2019 Australian Open Women's Singles title.

Jan. 27:

- Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic wins the 2019 Australian Open title in Men's Singles after he defeats his Spanish rival Rafael Nadal 3-0 in final.

FEBRUARY

Feb.1:

- Qatar national football team win their first Asian Cup, beating Japan 3-1 in final.

Feb. 4:

- New England Patriots beat Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in the Super Bowl to win sixth NFL title in history.

Feb. 5:

- An internationally renowned diver Sahika Ercumen, becomes the first Turkish woman to dive without air tanks in Antarctica.

Feb. 7:

- Aleksander Ceferin is re-elected as the UEFA president for a second 4-year term at the 43rd Ordinary UEFA Congress in Rome.

Feb. 28:

- Turkish Football Federation appoints Turkish manager Senol Gunes as new head coach to replace Mircea Lucescu of Romania.

MARCH

March 4:

- U.S. basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sells his personal memorabilia in an auction for $2.94 million for charity.

March 7:

- Los Angeles Lakers' American superstar LeBron James scored 31 points against Denver Nuggets in NBA game to beat a Chicago Bulls legend, Michael Jordan, who had 32,292 points in his career. James tallied 32,311 points in total to surpass Jordan. The NBA's all-time top scorer is a retired player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who dropped 38,387 points in the league.

March 11:

- French manager Zinedine Zidane returns to Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid to work as a manager for the second time in his career.

March 25:

- Turkey national football team commemorate New Zealand's Christchurch terrorist attack victims, holding a "Hello brother" banner before the UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying game against Moldova.

At least 50 people were killed by terrorist Brenton Tarrant, who attacked two mosques in city of Christchurch during Friday prayers on March 15.

March 27:

- Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich officially confirm that the club signed French left back Lucas Hernandez from the La Liga club Atletico Madrid for €80 million ($88 million), a record signing for Bayern.

APRIL

April 2:

- The German Football Association (DFB) President Reinhard Grindel resigns.

April 7:

- European champion Paralympic swimmer Sumeyye Boyaci of Turkey wins gold medal in the Para Swimming World Series in the U.S. Boyaci gets the gold in the 50-meter backstroke with a 45.28 finish.

April 11:

- Two NBA legends end their careers.

Dallas Mavericks' German legend Dirk Nowitzki and a former NBA All-Star, Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade retire from basketball.

April 15:

- Turkish female weightlifter Saziye Erdogan, competing in the women's 45-kilogram weight category, wins gold in snatch in the European Weightlifting Championship in Georgia's Black Sea resort city of Batumi.

- Another Turkish athlete Daniyar Ismayilov, competing in the men’s 67-kilogram weight category, earns gold in snatch at the same tournament.

April 20:

- Italian football powerhouse Juventus lift their eight consecutive Serie A title, beating Fiorentina 2-1 at home.

- Juventus forward Ronaldo becomes first player to win titles in three major leagues, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A.

April 27:

- Barcelona win Spanish La Liga title with three weeks remaining in the season.

April 29:

- Turkish Super Lig team Alanyaspor’s Czech striker Josef Sural, 28, loses his life in a road accident in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.

MAY

May 12:

- Manchester City beat Brighton 4-1 to win the English Premier League title.

- A Dutch football veteran, Robin Van Persie ends his professional football career. The 36-year-old forward previously played for Dutch club Feyenoord, Premier League teams Arsenal and Manchester United and Turkey's Fenerbahce.

May 15:

- Ajax Amsterdam win 34th title in Dutch top-tier Eredivisie league, beating De Graafschap 4-1.

May 17:

- Galatasaray become Turkish champions. Lions beat Medipol Basaksehir 2-1 to clinch Turkish Super Lig title for the 22nd time.

May 18:

- Bayern Munich hit Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 to win their 28th title in Germany's top football league, Bundesliga.

May 19:

- Irem Yaman claims a gold medal in women's 62kg category of World Taekwondo Championships. She becomes the first Turkish female athlete to win the gold medal twice in taekwondo.

May 25:

- Turgay Demirel from Turkey is re-elected for the second term as the president of International Basketball Federation's Europe branch until 2023.

May 29:

- Chelsea bag UEFA Europa League trophy over 4-1 win against Arsenal.

- A former Chelsea goalkeeper from Czech Republic, Petr Cech -- the 2012 UEFA Champions League winner -- retires from football.

JUNE

June 1:

- English football club Liverpool claim UEFA Champions League title over a 2-0 victory against Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid.

June 5:

- A Swiss-Italian national, Gianni Infantino is re-elected FIFA President for another four years.

June 8:

- Turkish national football team beat the 2018 world champions, France 2-0 in UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers, a first time Turkish victory against France.

June 9:

- Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal wins the French Open title, beating Austria’s Dominic Thiem 3-1.

June 11:

- Barcelona superstar Messi becomes the most paid athlete in the world with $127 million, a world famous finance magazine, Forbes says.

June 13:

- Spanish football giants Real Madrid sign Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard from Chelsea. "Los Blancos" (The Whites) pay $112 million transfer fee to Chelsea to set new club record.

June 14:

- The Toronto Raptors -- the only NBA team outside the U.S. -- become 2019 NBA champions after beating Golden State Warriors 114-110 in the finals.

Eastern Conference team Raptors get their first ever NBA title, eliminating Warriors from the West 4-2 in the finals series.

June 15:

- Ukraine topple South Korea 3-1 in the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2019 final to be winners in Poland's Lodz.

June 21:

- Anadolu Efes win Turkish basketball league title, beating Fenerbahce Beko 89-74 in Game 7 to claim their 14th league title.

June 22:

- Turkey become 2019 CEV Volleyball European Golden League winners in men's, beating Belarus 3-0 in Estonia's Tallinn.

June 30:

- Turkey win 15 medals -- two gold, six silver and seven bronze -- in the 2019 European Games held in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

JULY

July 5:

- Turkish central defender Merih Demiral joins Italy's Juventus.

- Ali Gurbuz wins the coveted golden belt at the ancient 658th oil wrestling festival in Turkey's northwestern Edirne province.

July 12:

- Barcelona sign French star Antoine Griezmann from La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid, paying €120 million ($134.9 million) for the buyout clause to acquire Griezmann.

July 13:

- Romanian tennis player Simona Halep beats her U.S. opponent Serena Williams 2-0 to win the 2019 Wimbledon title in women's singles.

July 14:

- Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeats Swiss Roger Federer 3-2 to win the 2019 Wimbledon title in men's singles.

July 19:

- Algeria earn their first Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title in 29 years, defeating Senegal 1- 0 in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

AUGUST

Aug. 6:

- French football club Lille sign Trabzonspor midfielder Yusuf Yazici for €16.5 million ($18.4 million) as transfer fee.

Aug. 10:

- Zehra Begum Kavukcuoglu claims gold medal in women's 59kg category of World Taekwondo Championships.

Aug. 12:

- A former Inter Milan and Galatasaray star, Dutch attacking midfielder Wesley Sneijder, 35, retires from football. Sneijder helped Inter win 2010 UEFA Champions League.

Aug. 14:

- Liverpool capture the 2019 UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul's Vodafone Park Stadium after beating Chelsea 5-4 on penalties.

Aug. 16:

- A Turkish defender of Genclerbirligi, Mert Cetin joins Italian team Roma for five years.

Aug. 18:

- English football veteran Ashley Cole retires from football at the age of 38, ending a 20-year professional career.

The English left-back was a UEFA Champions League and Europa League winner while playing for Chelsea.

- Kerem Kamal from Turkey beat his Armenian opponent Sahak Hovhannisyan 7-2 to claim gold medal in men's 60kg Greco-Roman category of Junior World Wrestling Championships.

Aug. 29:

- Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool's Dutch defender, is named the UEFA Men's Player of the Year.

- Turkey win four medals -- two gold and two bronze -- in the 2019 Women's European Boxing Championships in Madrid.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 4:

- A former Turkish wrestler who won a gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Tevfik Kis passes away at the age of 85 in Turkey's capital Ankara.

Sept. 8:

- American Serena Williams is defeated 6-3, 7-5, in the women’s final of the United States Open by Bianca Andreescu who becomes the first Canadian to win the title.

Sept. 9:

- Turkish women's national volleyball team become the 2019 CEV Volleyball European Championship runners-up, losing the final to Serbia 3-2.

- Spanish Rafael Nadal wins the U.S. Open to claim his 19th Grand Slam title.

- Despite losing to New Zealand 102-101 in the Classification Round 17-32 of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, Turkey advance to Olympic qualification.

Sept. 15:

- Spain win 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup title, beating Argentina 95-75 in final in Beijing. Spanish playmaker guard Ricky Rubio is picked as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the World Cup.

Sept. 17:

- Turkish wrestler Riza Kayaalp claims a gold medal in the World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Sept. 21:

- Barcelona's Messi receives the Best FIFA Men's Player 2019 award.

Sept. 28:

- Toprak Razgatlioglu becomes the first-ever Turkish winner of the World Superbike Championship after stunning series leader Jonathan Rea by overtaking him in the final lap.

Sept. 29:

- Serbia bag the gold medal in the CEV Men's Volleyball European Championship by beating Slovenia 3-1 in the final.

OCTOBER

Oct. 4:

- American Dalilah Muhammad breaks her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles in 52.16 seconds at 17th World Athletics Championships.

Oct. 8:

- Female athlete Simone Biles becomes the most decorated gymnast in World Championships history with her 21st gold medal.

Oct. 12:

- Turkey wins its first ever gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships with the 24-year-old athlete Ibrahim Colak.

Oct. 28:

- Turkish athlete Sahika Ercumen sets world record in women's cave diving without fins.

Oct. 30:

- A Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja climbs the world's tallest 14 peaks in six months to break the world record.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 3:

- Kenyan athlete Daniel Kipkore Kibet wins the 41st Istanbul Marathon men's title by breaking the 42 km Istanbul Marathon track record while Ethiopian athlete Hirut Tibebu wins women's title at the intercontinental Istanbul Marathon.

- Mercedes team's driver Lewis Hamilton secures the 2019 Formula 1 title at the U.S. Grand Prix with a second-place finish at the Circuit of the Americas.

Nov. 10:

- British golfer Tyrell Hatton wins the Turkish Airlines Open 2019 in Antalya.

Nov. 14:

- Turkish National Football Team advances to the UEFA EURO 2020 finals after goalless tie against Iceland in Group H qualifying match.

DECEMBER

Dec. 3:

- Messi receives the 2019 Ballon d'Or award for the sixth time.

Dec. 8:

- Italy's Imoco Volley win gold medal in the 2019 Women's FIVB Volleyball Club World Championship after beating Turkish volleyball club Eczacibasi VitrA 3-1 in the final.

Dec. 9:

- The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) hands a four-year ban to Russia for major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup.

Dec. 13:

- Traditional Turkish archery enters UN heritage list. Turkey's Foreign Ministry announces that it is inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Dec. 15:

- Tokyo National Stadium becomes ready for 2020 Summer Olympics as the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe opens it.

Dec. 19:

- Belgium's National Football Team tops the FIFA World Ranking in 2019.

Dec. 21:

- Liverpool win 2019 FIFA Club World Cup after beating Brazil's Flamengo 1-0 in the final in Qatar.

Dec. 25:

- Spain's Real Madrid heads UEFA's list of all-time top 30 clubs of European Cup with 600 points.

- Turkey's Galatasaray listed among the all-time top 30 clubs in European Cup rankings, standing at 23rd place with 157 points.