The highlights of 2012 in the world of football (and Dirty Tackle)

Though the end of a calendar year tends to be a rather arbitrary point in the timeline of world football, the fact that it marks a momentary break for most leagues and players makes it as good a time as any to look back on the recent past. The video above does a fairly good job of boiling down the last 12 months to the moments that are most worth remembering (but if you don't have an extra nine minutes, these are the top five stories I picked for Yahoo!'s year in review series).

But amidst Chelsea's Champions League run, the unbelievable way Man City took the Premier League title and Zambia's African Cup of Nations shocker there were some DT posts that some people seemed to like. Here is a sampling of the year in Dirty Tackle...

-Alessandro Del Piero credited with waking a girl from a coma.

-A look at Real Madrid Resort Island.

-Future News: Barcelona petition FIFA to declare possession more important than goals.

-The world's media really wanted to believe our very fake story about Cristiano Ronaldo missing a flight for a Cinnabon.

-A far more real story about Cristiano's generosity towards a 9-year-old with cancer.

-Xavi files a complaint to the IOC about the Olympics ruining football.

-Arsene Wenger explains the sale of Robin van Persie.

-If it continued... (Chelsea v Manchester United)

-DT Exclusive: Arsene Wenger and Robin van Persie's texts to each other.

-Zlatan Ibrahimovic explains his extraordinary overhead kick against England to Pep Guardiola.

Of course, there was far more nonsense than that, but let's not dwell on the past too much and start looking to the future of untold oddities. Thank you so much for reading and supporting DT. You have no idea how much it is appreciated. Happy new year from Dirty Tackle!