Every sportsperson named in the New Year Honours list 2025
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A look at the full list in sport. Former England manager Gareth Southgate and former Wales and British and Irish Lions wing Gerald Davies have been knighted in the New Year Honours. Southgate led England to two consecutive European Championship finals and the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, making him the most successful incumbent since Sir Alf Ramsey.
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The 54-year-old, who left the role shortly after England’s defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July, becomes the fourth former England manager to receive a knighthood, after Ramsey, Sir Walter Winterbottom, and Sir Bobby Robson. Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt paid tribute to Southgate, saying his honour was “richly deserved”, that he “embodied the best of English football” and hailed him as “one of our greatest ever managers”.
She added that Southgate had “inspired players to share his pride in representing England” and that it had been “a privilege to know the man and the manager.”. Davies, the former Wales and British and Irish Lions wing who subsequently served as president of the Welsh Rugby Union, has also been knighted for services to his sport and for voluntary and charitable service in Wales.
Davies played for Wales between 1966 and 1978 and won three Grand Slams. He toured with the Lions in 1968 and 1971 making five appearances. “I feel very emotional about it. I am surprised by it. Words are really quite inadequate to describe it,” Davies told the PA news agency.
