This has been Sunderland’s greatest calendar year of the 21st century.
Not only did they clamber back into the Premier League with a play-off campaign that still takes some believing, they have almost dismissed fears of an instant return to the Championship.
Sunderland do not want to part with 2025 after all it has given them, but The Athletic looks back on the club’s most transformational year in a generation.
Best moment
This is a task akin to picking your favourite child. Nothing should really beat Tommy Watson’s stoppage-time winner at Wembley, yet somehow, improbably, there was something about Dan Ballard’s header that took Sunderland to the play-off final that narrowly trumps it.
Perhaps it was the guttural noise or the waterfall of bodies that followed the goal, but the Stadium of Light has never known drama quite like that since it opened in 1997. There was a rawness about that moment that might never be replicated for another quarter of a century. The memory alone is enough to bring goosebumps.
An honourable mention goes to the 1-0 victory over Newcastle United this month, the first Wear-Tyne derby in the Premier League since 2016. Icing on the cake for one of the club’s great years.
Worst moment
The run of five straight Championship defeats through April and May threatened to see Sunderland’s ambitions derailed, but the darkest hour came late in the year.
The death of Gary Rowell was one of those that hit differently. The local boy from nearby Seaham was Sunderland’s goalscoring king in the late 1970s and early 80s, standing alongside Len Shackleton and Kevin Phillips in an elite group of players to have scored more than 100 Sunderland goals since the Second World War.
Rowell remained a much-loved figure, warm and engaging, so his passing at the age of 68 was difficult to digest. A derby win over Newcastle United, a day after his death was announced, at least provided a fitting tribute to the player who scored a legendary hat-trick against the same opposition in 1979.
Best game
If the Coventry City second leg included 2025’s best moment, the victory over Sheffield United in the final might yet come to stand as one of the most significant games in Sunderland’s history.
Behind early on and under the pump, Regis Le Bris’ side clung on and found a final quarter that turned everything around. Elizer Mayenda’s equaliser was a thumping punch to rock Sheffield United, before Watson, an academy graduate, curled in a sumptuous winner in the 95th minute.
Every promotion is sweet, but there can be few that have brought such an outpouring of emotion. The long road from League One had led Sunderland back to the Premier League.
Best player
There is no shortage of candidates from the current season, but it is an honour that must go to a mainstay. That leaves it between two Northern Ireland defenders, and it is Ballard, marginally ahead of Trai Hume, that gets favouritism.
Ballard was immense across the play-off campaign and has quickly dispelled any doubt that the Premier League might be a bridge too far. Goals against West Ham and Arsenal, his boyhood club, added gloss to a period that has seen him become a hugely influential figure in Sunderland’s ranks. Ballard was made for defending.
(Michael Steele/Getty Images)
The stat that sums up 2025
In a run of 13 games between mid-May and early November, Sunderland scored seven stoppage-time goals.
And not just any old goals. As well as those decisive strikes from Ballard and Watson that earned promotion, there were more against West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brentford, and Chelsea to cap hugely valuable Premier League wins. The late, late strike from Brian Brobbey, denying Arsenal a win at the Stadium of Light, was another point that underlined Sunderland were capable of bloodying noses in the top flight.
Little wonder that “Til the End” became the club’s promotional tagline.
Favourite quote
“This word ‘Championship’ is not in the dressing room. We have different goals.”
Granit Xhaka was given the armband ahead of the opening weekend and soon set about raising standards. If the ‘C word’ was not mentioned ahead of the season, it certainly won’t be now.
Most surprising thing that happened
Sunderland’s year was one littered with surprises, but it was the summer weeks that raised most eyebrows. This was a club that had opted for sustainability under Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ ownership, limiting spending and placing an unashamed focus upon youth.
That all changed between seasons as roughly £165million ($220m) was spent on 14 new arrivals. The outlay put Sunderland in Europe’s top 10 spenders and underlined a very different strategy in the market. Rarely has a newly promoted club shown such aggression.
Which of your club’s players will do best at the World Cup?
As captain of Switzerland, as well as Sunderland, Xhaka continues to demonstrate his enormous experience and value.
The veteran midfielder has been one of the Premier League’s best this season and, as such, will be central to Switzerland’s plans next summer. Given they have been placed in a group that includes Qatar and Canada, there will be an expectation for Xhaka to lead Switzerland into the last 32 and beyond.
(George Wood/Getty Images)
Player to watch in 2026
Noah Sadiki has quietly become one of Sunderland’s most important players since joining from Union Saint-Gilloise in the summer, and the £15m outlay already feels a bargain for a midfielder who has only just turned 22.
Sadiki is away at the Africa Cup of Nations with DR Congo and is a play-off away from reaching the World Cup, too. Continue on this trajectory for club and country and he will be sure to have his suitors.
A wish for 2026
Is more of the same too much to ask?