2014 Rewind: 15 of the best football GIFs of the Year

2014 was a great year for football supporters with Germany lifting the FIFA World Cup trophy in Brazil to Real Madrid fulfilling their decade-long obsession of bringing home the 10th Champions League title.The year was all about moments, from intense to light-hearted ones, and in an attempt to remember the best ones, we have tried to compile a slideshow with the most epic and brilliant GIFs that we have been collecting for this day throughout the year. In the form of an annual rewind, we bring you the 15 best GIFs of the year:

#1 A handshake snub while the whole world is watching

Almost all of us have been embarrassed by handshake snubs once in our lifetime, but it was Canadian referee Joe Fletcher who was rejected of one (not on purpose, of course!)  during the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

This was moments before the kick-off when the Spanish and Chile players were preparing to come out of the tunnel along with the match referee. Poor old Fletcher tried to reach out the FIFA delegate for a handshake right after the latter had greeted Spanish skipper Iker Casillas who was standing next to Fletcher, thinking it was his turn.

To save himself from the embarrassment, Fletcher did what most of us would do. Pretend to stroke your hair.

But, maybe it was a bit too late as the footage went viral on the internet. Casillas, who was standing next to him, gave him a reassuring pat on the back.