Usain Bolt wins gold at third-straight Olympics — but what was the football world like when he won his first in 2008?
USAIN BOLT has won 100m and 200m gold for an historic third consecutive Olympics.
The Jamaican sprinter’s achievements have surely outdone any in memory.
Bolt won his first golds eight years ago in Beijing.
No matter what has been thrown at him, he has overcome it.
Life has moved on — but Bolt has remained the same.
And just to give you a comparison, SunSport takes you back to 2008 and looks at how different the football landscape was.
The Premier League was on top of the world. No one could beat English sides — except themselves.
Manchester United had just defeated Chelsea in first all-English Champions League final.
While, the Premier League could genuinely claim to have the four best teams in the continent. For the first time in history, sides from one division were only eliminated by domestic rivals.
As well as United beating Chelsea, the Blues KO’d Liverpool in the semi-finals, who had beaten Arsenal in the last-eight.
The Red Devils’ title triumph had made it ten for Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs — and the club were just one off Liverpool’s record haul of 18.
And the Reds made Robbie Keane‘s dream come true — for the first time — believing his £20million purchase from Tottenham would see them crowned champions for the first time in 19 years.
Dimitar Berbatov was hotly tipped to move to Old Trafford as the first Premier League player to cost over £30m.
Rio Ferdinand and Andriy Shevchenko were the current most expensive, while Zinedine Zidane remained as the world’s costliest player.
Kaka had been the last recipient of the Ballon d’Or award — beating off competition from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — after helping AC Milan win the Champions League.
The Brazilian also claimed the now defunct Fifa World Player of the Year gong.
Although, Ronaldo’s 42-goal haul made him favourite to be crowned the globe’s greatest next.
And there was excitement brewing at Stamford Bridge.
After pushing United close both domestically and in Europe, Avram Grant was to be replaced by World Cup-winning boss, Luiz Felipe Scolari.
However, there appeared to be worrying times ahead for Barcelona.
After catapulting themselves to the brink of European domination under Frank Rijkaard, they finished third — behind Villarreal and Real Madrid — in La Liga, and the Dutchman was sacked.
Moreover, Ronaldinho was sold to Milan and the club opted to promote Pep Guardiola from the B team to his first job in management.
The former player had a big job on his hands. The Catalans were still level with the likes of Nottingham Forest and Porto on two European Cups.
While, life was a little different for now moneybags outfits Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
Sven Goran Eriksson was sacked by then owner Thaksin Shinawatra after an 8-1 drubbing Middlesbrough on the final day of the Premier League season.
Elano had been the star player at Eastlands — as the Etihad was then known.
Unbeknown to most, City’s future would be completely changing in just over two weeks’ time.
And life was even harder for PSG.
They finished 16th in Ligue 1 — and only survived relegation after a tense draw with Sochaux.
Lyon’s remarkable run went on as they won a seventh-straight title.
In Italy, Inter Milan had just claimed their second-successive Serie A title — or, third if you include the 2005-06 championship awarded to them after Juventus were relegated for match fixing.
Roberto Mancini’s first spell in charge had come to an end, however, after two consecutive last-16 eliminations in the Champions League saw the Nerazzurri go for Jose Mourinho.
The likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon and Pavel Nedved had helped Juventus overcome a 17-point deduction to win Serie B — and then finish an impressive third in their first season back in the top flight under Claudio Ranieri.
Bayern Munich recovered from a disastrous campaign which saw them miss out on Champions League football and regain the Bundesliga title.
The Bavarians even endured a difficult season in the Uefa Cup.
Kevin Davies’ 82nd minutes strike had ensured Bolton left the Allianz Arena with a 2-2 draw. The first leg of their last-32 clash in Aberdeen also finished with the same scoreline.
And Zenit St Petersburg pummelled Bayern 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
The Russians went onto beat Rangers in the final.
The Glasgow giants brought around 150,000 fans to Manchester for the showpiece, and many caused chaos on the streets of the city.
On the international stage, Spain ended 34 years of hurt as they lost their tags as nearly men with victory at Euro 2008.
A tournament where England had, famously, failed to qualified.
Fabio Capello was now the man at the helm and John Terry was set to go head-to-head with Ferdinand for the captaincy.