Pride of the south.

I have been a Pompey fan all my life; I’ve seen the ups and I’ve seen the many downs. The greatest moment in the clubs history that I’ve been alive to witness would have to be winning the FA Cup last season. Sadly, I was unable to attend Portsmouth’s first appearance in a cup final since 1939 due to it being my girlfriends 18th birthday. I truly believe that if I chose Portsmouth Football Club over her we would not be together now. The fact that Portsmouth are in the Premier League is an achievement compared to the times when they were flirting with relegation in the old Division One only a few years ago.

At the start of this season, there were high expectations. Harry Redknapp was in charge, the club was witnessing its first season in Europe and the key players were happy. However, the clubs finances and members of the board were unstable. Now sixteen games in, Harry has gone to Tottenham, the club is out of Europe due to a recent 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg and star players such as Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra may move on in January. To make things worse, the club is now up for sale and £35 million in debt.

Now in an era where foreign billionaires buy football clubs and invest millions of pounds into the club I honestly would like that to happen to Portsmouth. I know many people would disagree with me and believe that it ruins the game but if the opportunity arrived for it to happen to their club, they would snap at the chance. Admittedly, Manchester City are being stupid by attempting to buy players like Kaka and Torres just because they can offer them high wages but if clubs are sensible with the money I can’t see the problem it if ensures the safety to English clubs.

Ronaldo joins legendary list.

Was it really a surprise that the Manchester United winger won the European footballer of the year award? No, not really.

However, when I mentioned the fact that Ronaldo had won the trophy to my girlfriend’s dad he could not believe it. Being a Liverpool fan, he was certain the award should have gone to Fernando Torres. We argued for half an hour and in the end decided to call a truce agreeing that the pair of them had lit the Premier League alight last season.

Ronaldo was tipped to win the award after the Champions League final in May and I for one thought that he was a dead cert to win the famous Ballon d'Or trophy. After scoring 42 goals in a season where Manchester United won the Premier League title and the Champion League, it would have been an insult if the Portuguese man didn’t win it.

Because of Ronaldo's defining role in United's double winning season 77 of the 96 journalists on the Ballon d'Or panel voted for him as their number one player, earning 446 points from a maximum 480.

In this famous season for United, Ronaldo became the fifth player ever to score more than 30 goals in a single Premier League season and the first winger to win the Golden Shoe.

By winning the trophy, he became the third Portuguese player to do so - after Eusebio and Luis Figo and joined fellow Manchester United greats Dennis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton. He also joins legends such as Michel Platini, Marco Van Basten, Johan Cruyff and Zinedine Zidane.

Lionel Messi came second and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres came third.