Tuesday night saw the celebration of not just another 12 months across all British sports but 70 years of the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and the full list of winners for 2023 is much longer than just one name.
A total of eight different awards were handed on out the glamorous night over Salford Quays’ MediaCityUK hub, with some big characters and lesser-known faces receiving some much-deserved recognition for their contribution to sport over the past year.
The Manc had the honour of going along this year and it was plain to see just by chatting to some of the nominees, past winners, former athletes and other guests how special an occasion the annual award ceremony is — especially now it’s back here in Manchester for the foreseeable.
This year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award winners
Let’s start off with our winner of the titular award itself:
Sports Personality of the Year 2023 — Mary Earps
It couldn’t have been anyone else really, could it? Mary ‘Queen of Stops’ Earps rounded a huge year or so for her and women’s football in general with yet another personal accolade that she was quick to insist wouldn’t have been possible without her teammates and the support from her family.
Here’s what the Manchester United keeper and Lionesses hero had to say after lifting the iconic piece of silverware:
Young Sports Personality of the Year — Mia Brookes
The Young ‘SPOTY’ award for 2023 went to snowboarding superstar Mia Brookes, who became the youngest world champion in snowboarding history when she won slopestyle gold in February, Britain’s first-ever in the event, before adding to that a silver at the World Cup in Laax and a big air bronze in Chur back in October.
Still only 16, the Cheshire-born athlete has quite the career ahead of her.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement award went to none other than footballing legend King ‘Kenny’ Dalglish, who was recognised for his decades of dedication to the sport, English football, work with Liverpool and crucial role at the club in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster.
An icon in Merseyside and across the North West in general, he’s one of the greatest players the UK has ever produced and although his speech was filled with plenty of humour, there was also plenty of emotion on stage as he touched on his past teammates, loved ones and gratitude for the award.
In a similar vein, British athletics legend Fatima Whitbread also took home the Helen Rollason Award, an accolade awarded to individuals for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity: something the champion javelin thrower knows all about as she continues her incredible campaign for children.
Speaking passionately about the award named after the BBC Sports presenter and friend, as well as her experience of the care home system, calling for “fundamental change” to ensure the next generation is “safer, happier and healthier”. Hear, hear.
Next up on the night was a multi-discipline award recognizing remarkable work in the community through sport and that honour went to none other than one Des Smith, the chairman of Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club: a safe haven for young people which offers five cricket teams and eight junior football sides as well as netball and hockey teams.
Throughout his time running the club, he has strived to improve race relations and understanding through the club, as well as helping educate locals on the importance of the Windrush generation. An emotional moment for everyone.
Manchester City pick up another treble at the Sports Personality of the Year Awards
Last but not least, it was no surprise to see Manchester City‘s incredible treble-winning campaign recognised at SPOTY 2023 and it was only fitting that such a feat was met with yet another trio of trophies.
Taking home Club of the Year and Team of the Year, as well as Erling Haaland predictably winning World Sports Star for his own record-breaking season, you could say there was quite a big blue moon over Salford Quays on the night.
Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
20th December 2023 
