Young guns and old Tiger Woods set to shine in the year ahead

Premier League Gerard Deulofeu

Having once been considered as Barcelona’s next wonderkid, it’s fair to say Gerard Deulofeu has always carried a lofty reputation.

Things didn’t quite go to plan for the 24-year-old at Camp Nou or Goodison Park but he is starting to show some consistency at Watford, netting consecutive league goals in wins over Cardiff and West Ham, and is quickly becoming an integral part of their success.

The Hornets are buzzing in seventh and Deulofeu, blessed with blistering pace and trickery to match the Premier League’s elite, could be the key ingredient in helping them secure a top-half finish.

Aaron Ashley

Football League Forest Green

Forest Green are a club on the up and their Sky Bet League Two promotion chances may have been underestimated.

Rovers climbed into the playoff places with a 1-0 victory at home to Crewe on Saturday - their third success in four league games - and are only five points adrift of the automatic promotion places.

They are adjusting well to the early-season departure of striker Christian Doidge and have a decent chance of securing a second promotion in three years.

Dan Childs

Europe Jadon Sancho

They say never ignore the obvious and there are few hotter teenage talents in Europe right now than England's very own Brit abroad Jadon Sancho, who is tearing defences to shreds on the wing for Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Sizzling Sancho's dancing feet have bamboozled opponents with six goals and seven assists in just over 1,000 minutes of Bundesliga action which is frightening really as there is potentially so much more still to come from the 18-year-old.

It's a matter of when not if Sancho becomes a footballing superstar.

Mark Langdon

Boxing Daniel Dubois

The welcome re-emergence of a thriving heavyweight scene has been one of the boxing highlights in recent times, and the UK talent pool runs deep.

Joe Joyce and Nathan Gorman can both look forward to an exciting year, but another man looking to make a big name for himself in 2019 is 'Dynamite' Daniel Dubois.

At just 21 years old, the 6ft 5in Londoner has already racked up nine straight wins (eight by KO), and promoter Frank Warren has said he is the best heavyweight he has seen at such a young age.

Dan Williams

Cricket New Zealand

New Zealand's recent Test series victory against Pakistan in the UAE was a triumph of teamwork and smart tactics and it is dangerous to write off the Kiwis, whatever the format.

They are certainly worth considering at 9-1 to win June's World Cup in England, where quick bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee should relish the conditions.

Led by Kane Williamson – perhaps the most understated genius in world sport – they could also be big runners when the inaugural ICC World Test Championship starts in July.

James Milton

Cycling Wout van Aert

After a protracted contract dispute in which he turned his back on a deal with his former team, multiple world cyclocross champion Van Aert has joined Jumbo-Visma a year earlier than planned with success in the spring Classics on his radar.

The Belgian’s first real assault on cycling’s one-day races brought about a podium finish at Strade Bianche, ninth at the Tour of Flanders and 13th place in Paris-Roubaix and he also claimed the general classification at the Tour of Denmark.

With a stronger squad behind him he is only going to get better.

Matthew Ireland

Darts Richard North

Richard North won his first match at this year's William Hill World Championship and it could be onwards and upwards for Northy.

The Lionheart, who gained his tour card as recently as 2017, was hampered by his double-hitting on TV. However, North is gaining experience and certainly has the game to challenge anyone once he settles into life on the big stage.

It's likely North will go off at tasty prices for the elite events in 2019 and it could pay to keep him onside.

Henry Hardwicke

F1 Charles Leclerc

After a hugely impressive debut season with Sauber, Charles Leclerc moves to Ferrari for 2019 and don’t be surprised if he upstages his established teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Monaco-born Leclerc scored 39 points this season compared to teammate Marcus Ericsson’s nine, and finished the year strongly with three straight seventh-place finishes.

Vettel was outperformed by Kimi Raikkonen several times in the latter part of the year, and former GP3 and Formula 2 champion Leclerc could be the one to challenge for Ferrari’s first drivers title in 12 years.

Adam Scriven

Golf Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods regained his place in the elite last season and his Tour Championship triumph was the icing on the cake of a superb comeback campaign. He will be licking his lips at the Major venues for the year ahead.

The four-times Masters champ will expect to be a factor at Augusta, where he won by 12 shots in 1997, but he has also been an emphatic winner at two more of the courses being used for a 2019 Major, having won the 2000 US Open by 15 at Pebble Beach and the 2002 US Open by three at Bethpage Black.

Steve Palmer

NFL Cleveland Browns

The Browns were a laughing stock in the NFL not so long ago - they won one of 34 matches before a Week Three success over the New York Jets - but they have improved in leaps and bounds in the second half of the season.

Hapless coach Hue Jackson was finally sent packing, but he left behind all the ingredients for a great recovery. They just needed to be pointed in the right direction.

Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield looks to have solved the most pressing problem and there is a wealth of defensive talent that suggested there is scope for them to put their dismal days behind them and make a real charge for the playoffs in 2019.

Ian Wilkerson

Rugby league Leeds Rhinos

The 2017 Super Champions had a season to forget in 2018 as the defence of their title ended with a miserable ninth-placed finish but a major rebuild of both their squad and their Headingley home suggest better things in 2019.

Former player David Furner has been brought in as head coach and the experienced Aussie will have new signings Trent Merrin, Konrad Hurrell, Tui Lolohea, Callum McLelland and prop Dom Crosby to call upon and the Rhinos could be a dominant force in the league and the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup in which they are 10-1 and 9-1 for glory.

Alex Hilton

Rugby union Ireland

Ireland are unlikely to go backwards in 2019 from a stellar 2018 that began with a Grand Slam, took in a summer series success in Australia and ended with a first-ever home win over the All Blacks.

Head coach Joe Schmidt leaves after this autumn’s World Cup in Japan but that decision will have been made in the fullest of confidence that the set-up is right to stay focused for not only a strong Six Nations title defence but a sustained challenge for a first Webb Ellis Cup. There can be only one BOD but look out for Garry Ringrose, who boasts a similar mix of slick skills, sneaky pace and rock-hard defence.

Max Oram

Snooker Yuan SiJun

He's still only 18 years old but the Chinese starlet has bags of natural talent and the only way is up for the millennial from Fujian province.

Yuan, ranked 68th in the world, showed he's already a viable outsider for title backers with a fine run to the quarter-finals of the China Championship in September, when he upended Ding Junhui, Ricky Walden and Mark King before being denied by world number one Mark Selby.

He also reached the third round of the English Open, International Championship and Scottish Open in recent months and the world is his oyster. You could say he is Yuan to follow in 2019.

Adrian Humphries

Tennis Alex de Minaur

De Minaur burst on to the scene in his native Australia at the beginning of 2018 and rose from 209th to 31st in the world rankings in his first season on the ATP World Tour.

Aged just 19, Lleyton Hewitt’s protege has spent the off-season working towards building up his conditioning in a bid to compete on a regular basis with the best players in the world.

Andy Murray is among many to have heaped praise on this razor-sharp returner who reached the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Joe Champion

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