Kings of London | Decade Review | A Look Back at the First 10 Seasons

Now that our time at Kingstonian is about to reach its eleventh season, let’s take a look back and acknowledge the players that helped us along the way. Later, we’ll see what’s been going on around the world of football as we are now at a level where we should be paying more attention in hopes of reaching European football in the 2030’s.

My favorite players at each position are bolded below.

	GK	DR	DC	DC	DL
2020-21 NLS	Bradley-Hurst 6.8, 19 SHO	Vaughan 6.88	Mensah 6.94	Cook 6.92	Hannam 6.83
2021-22 NLS	Bradley-Hurst 6.79, 14 SHO	Vaughan 6.82	Laing 6.88	Sraha 6.96	Hannam 6.66
2022-23 NL	Bradley-Hurst 6.82, 15 SHO	Ruffles 7.04	Jones 7.05	Sraha 7.06	Hernandez 7.0
2023-24 NL	Howes 6.8, 13 SHO	Ruffles 7.16	Jones 6.99	Bridge 7.03	Preston 7.22
2024-25 L2	Rees 6.89, 20 SHO	Ruffles 7.0	Jones 6.97	Bridge 7.17	Preston 7.03
2025-26 L2	Rees 6.86, 11 SHO	Davies 7.24	McCorkell 7.0	Bridge 7.05	Preston 7.17
2026-27 L1	Rees 6.87, 19 SHO	Davies 6.97 / Cole 6.9	McCorkell 6.87	Briggs 6.95	Preston 6.83
2027-28 L1	Rees 6.9, 19 SHO	Cole 7.14	McCorkell 7.11	Kuqi 7.05	Preston 6.99 / Brown 7.25
2028-29 CH	Rees 7.05, 15 SHO	Cole 7.09	McCorkell 7.04	Kuqi 7.08 / Howcroft 6.9	Brown 7.13
2029-30 CH	Rees 6.86, 15 SHO	Cole 7.05	McCorkell 7.02	Papetti 7.07	Brown 7.02

	DM / MC	DM / MC	MC / AM C	MR / AM R	ML / AM L
2020-21 NLS	Bramble 6.89	Dronfield 7.32	–	Murphy 6.97	Saraiva 7.38
2021-22 NLS	Bramble 7.0	Dronfield 7.23	–	Corbett 6.93	Saraiva 7.03
2022-23 NL	Defise 6.9	Dronfield 7.11	–	Morris 7.26	Saraiva 7.18
2023-24 NL	Burke 7.13	Dronfield 7.01	–	Morris 7.10	Bettache 7.03
2024-25 L2	Burke 7.12	Dinsmore 7.21	Birch 6.75	Markanday 6.96	Matthews 6.84
2025-26 L2	Dunne 7.12	Dinsmore 7.31	Falzon 7.09	Markanday 7.0	Matthews 6.86
2026-27 L1	Akgun 7.15	Dinsmore 6.9	Allison 6.99	Poku 7.1	Fevrier 6.79
2027-28 L1	Foster 7.1	Dinsmore 7.32	Highfield 6.98	Isaacs 7.07	Poku 6.97
2028-29 CH	Johnson 7.21	Rees 7.04	Highfield 6.97	Isaacs 7.07	Ford 7.11
2029-30 CH	Johnson 7.26	Corness 7.07	Butler 7.14	Isaacs 7.14	Ford 6.97

	ST	ST
2020-21 NLS	Asante 7.27, 27 goals	J. Andrews 7.12, 11 goals
2021-22 NLS	Asante 7.27, 29 goals	J. Reid 7.28, 20 goals
2022-23 NL	Asante 7.25, 18 goals	Pressley 7.31, 22 goals
2023-24 NL	Matthews 7.31, 22 goals	Pressley 7.15, 26 goals
2024-25 L2	Cantú 6.92, 22 goals	Pressley 6.9, 12 goals
2025-26 L2	McGuire 7.23, 31 goals	Cantú 6.84, 10 goals
2026-27 L1	Dawkins 7.01, 15 goals	McGuire 6.99, 16 goals
2027-28 L1	S. Jones 7.08, 23 goals	McGuire 7.09, 9 goals
2028-29 CH	C. Jones 7.5, 30 goals	S. Jones 6.83, 9 goals
2029-30 CH	Paxton 7.07, 16 goals	Esposito 6.99, 21 goals

What a decade! Liverpool with five Champions League trophies and six league titles is impressive. Manchester City was pretty dang good with three CL wins and two league titles too. Elsewhere, Real Madrid was rewarded for its dominance in the league with their lone CL win in 2028, while Inter deserved theirs too in 2029 despite parity in the Italian group of clubs the past decade. And finally, PSG broke through to claim their first CL trophy win and the first in a long time for a French club. Only Germany went empty-handed in the Champions League.

England and the Netherlands finally grab the World Cup wins that had eluded them for decades. Netherlands picked up another in 2030 too despite all eyes on France after 3 straight EURO victories. France finished 3rd in the World Cup in 2022, losing 3-2 to England, and then were runners-up in extra time in 2026, and then were knocked out in the second round by England 2-1 in Italy.

Also notable was the success of African nations in the World Cup. Nigeria lost the final against England in 2022, Cameroon came in 4th in 2026, and Ivory Coast defeated Scotland on penalties in 2030.

South Korea is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup so we’ll see if Asian countries get a boost during that competition.