5 things to be thankful for in world football this year

It's Thanksgiving Day for folks living in the United States and, as is tradition, millions of families across the country gather for dinner and share the things they are most thankful for in the year that was.

Here are 5 things we're thankful for in the world of football since the last Turkey was carved:

Sepp Blatter ousted

One short month after Thanksgiving day last year, world football was rocked by the news that Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini had been issued 8-year bans from FIFA for their roles in a corruption scandal that rolled on throughout 2015.

In the months that followed, Gianni Infantino became president of FIFA and a number of high-ranking officials were arrested and suspended as the winds of change had seemingly reached the governing body at long last.

While we are most definitely thankful for that reform, we're more thankful this endless saga finally fizzled out and that we haven't heard a peep from either Blatter or Platini for several months.

Johan Cruyff's legacy

This year, the world of football bid a somber farewell to one of the legends of the sport as Dutch star Johan Cruyff died at the age of 68.

As a player, Cruyff will always be remembered for his incredible dribbling skill and signature "Cruyff turn" trick, but it was his work as a tactician that cemented his legacy as an icon of the game.

His methods paved the way for Barcelona's now-famous style of play, with a focus on buildup and passing to achieve the end of beautiful football, above all else; as Pep Guardiola put it: "Johan Cruyff painted the chapel. And Barcelona coaches since merely restore or improve it."

Spanish criminal law

Barcelona supporters in particular and football fans in general will be thanking the Spanish courts as a number of star players who found themselves in a spot of tax trouble this year were spared jail time because of Spain's lax sentences.

Neymar faced a trial of his own but it was the 21-month sentence handed to Lionel Messi after being convicted of tax fraud that really stole the show in Catalonia; Spanish law says sentences less than 24 months are suspended for first-time offenders. You can bet a few Blaugrana fans were thankful for that.

What we're not thankful for is the awful #WeAreAllMessi Twitter campaign Barcelona created in an effort to show solidarity with the diminutive Argentine.

Ronaldo's entire 2016

In a year where dreams were made reality across all sport, it was the story of Cristiano Ronaldo that proved among the most captivating, and we're thankful for having watched one of the world's best footballers dominate in 2016.

Ronaldo scored the winning penalty in the 2016 Champions League final, and helped Portugal - as both a player and as a vocal leader on the touchline - avenge its past to win Euro 2016. He released a movie about himself, opened a hotel in Lisbon, signed a new contract with Real Madrid, and gave us a laugh with his antics as an actor in commercials and as a male model on Twitter.

He scored thrice against Atletico Madrid to set a new derby record, became the top-scoring active international footballer, and will likely round off the year with a Ballon D'Or trophy. It would be the fairy-tale story of the year if not for ...

Leicester City defy odds

By now, you've likely heard the story of Claudio Ranieri's indomitable Foxes: the fairy-tale Premier League-winning Leicester City of 2015-16.

It was and will likely remain forever an underdog story unlike any other, as a team of ragtag players brought together by little more than unwavering belief triumphed against all odds to capture one of the toughest titles in the world.

There are few moments like it in all of sport, so if you were there to see it, to soak in the sights and the sounds of celebration (and Andrea Bocelli) as Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kante, and the rest of Leicester's newly made stars wrote their name in the history books.

If you were there to see it, to experience it for yourself, then cherish the memory of it - there may never be a story like it again.