This week, The London Standard is unveiling the Standard 100, a list of the top hundred people shaping the capital in 2024.
The list covers politics, media, art, music, food, business, and much more. Today the Standard reveals those named for sport.
The list includes Bukayo Saka, the extraordinary Arsenal and England footballer. His courage and strength of personality to recover from the trauma of that penalty miss in the final of the Euros at Wembley in 2021 has been nothing short of inspirational. He regularly affects the biggest of matches and is a thoroughly decent young man to boot.
Another role model on the list - and with Arsenal in her DNA - is Beth Mead, the forward who captured the nation’s imagination when winning the Euros in 2022. Mead won the Golden Boot and was named Player of the Tournament before being named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. After a traumatic time due to injury and the loss of her mother, Mead is back at the top of her game and working tirelessly to encourage more girls to play football.
Also on the list is the nation’s new favourite German. Thomas Tuchel is back in town to take over as England football manager, the third foreigner to do so. He arrives with a reputation as a serial winner, given his exploits at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. If he finally gets the team over the winner’s line in a major tournament, he will have busted the myth of England’s ‘impossible job’.
Opportunity also knocks for Jack Draper, the men’s British tennis No1. Draper is in the midst of his breakthrough year, having reached the semi-finals of the US Open and following that up by winning the Vienna Open, the biggest title of his career. Now inside the world’s top 15 for the first time, expect Draper to kick on and fill those big shoes (11.5) left by Andy Murray.
The final name on the sport list is Frank Warren, the Islington-born boxing promoter who is at the top of the sport after decades of making the biggest matches. With a brilliant bunch of heavyweights in his corner in Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley, you can be sure that will remain the case for a long time to come.
Bukayo Saka
Footballer
More than just an extraordinary player for Arsenal and England, Saka is an icon - a national hero and an inspiration. Showed huge inner strength to recover from that Euros final penalty miss, he is a role model with a huge future.
Thomas Tuchel
England football manager
A German in charge of England? Yes, and we should get behind him. He doesn’t start in the job until January, but the serial winner at Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich is back in town to lead our boys to victory.
Beth Mead
Footballer
The Arsenal and England heroine is fit again after a terrible knee injury and starring for club and country. Player of the tournament when England won the Euros, Mead is a passionate campaigner to get more girls playing football.
Jack Draper
Tennis player
The British men’s No1 has got it all. A huge leftie serve and booming ground strokes - not to mention the heart-throb looks to grace the covers of Tatler and Vogue. Reached the US Open semi-finals, has just won the Vienna Open - the biggest title of his career - and you can bet on him kicking on from here.
Frank Warren
Boxing manager and promoter
With Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley, Warren’s Queensberry Promotions has a fearsome cabal of heavyweights in its corner. You’ll find the London-born Hall of Famer at the heart of boxing’s biggest deals.
Read the rest of our 100 Power List in the following sectors:
Music, art, culture, stage, screen and podcasts
