Gareth Southgate knighted and Keely Hodgkinson awarded MBE as sports stars feted in new year honours

Gerald Davies is the other sporting star to be knighted, while the likes of Hannah Cockroft, Helen Glover and David Moyes are also honoured

Gareth Southgate has become the fourth England men’s football manager to receive a knighthood after being named in the King’s 2025 new year honours list.

Southgate led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and two consecutive European Championship finals – although he lost both – making him the most successful Three Lions boss since Sir Alf Ramsey.

The 54-year-old left the role shortly after England’s defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July, having been in charge for 102 matches and having become the only manager of the England men’s team to reach two major tournament finals.

Ramsey delivered the Three Lions’ only major trophy to date in the home 1966 World Cup, while Sir Walter Winterbottom (England manager from 1946-62) and Sir Bobby Robson (1982-90) are the other two ex-England bosses to have been knighted.

England’s heartbreaking defeat to Italy on penalties in the Euro 2020 showpiece at Wembley was the team’s first major men’s final for 55 years, while Southgate also stood alongside his players on societal issues such as racism and has been awarded the honour for his services to football.

Rugby union star Gerald Davies was the other sporting name on the honours list to be knighted, the legendary Wales and British & Irish Lions winger – who subsequently served as president of the Welsh Rugby Union – receiving the nod for services to his sport and for voluntary and charitable service in Wales.

“I feel very emotional about it. I am surprised by it. Words are really quite inadequate to describe it,” Davies, who won three Five Nations grand slams during an international career that stretched from 1966 to 1978, told the Press Associaton. “It comes out of the blue. I was dumbstruck in many ways, but you don’t achieve these things on your own.”

Wales and Lions legend Gerald Davies (seen here with Prince William in 2023) has been knighted (Getty)

A number of British Olympic and Paralympic stars, who shone at Paris 2024 this summer, also received recognition as Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson was among those made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

The 22-year-old, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as a 19-year-old but upgraded to gold three years on, capped off a glittering 2024 by winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December.

Hodgkinson’s fellow athletics stars Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who won her first Olympic medal with heptathlon silver in Paris, and three-time medallist Dina Asher-Smith also received MBEs.

Keely Hodgkinson was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year just before Christmas (PA Wire)

A slew of other Olympic gold medallists become MBEs, with rowing champions Lola Anderson, Georgie Brayshaw, Emily Craig, Imogen Grant, Lauren Henry and Hannah Scott, cyclists Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant, trampoline gold medallist Bryony Page and kite-surfing winner Ellie Aldridge all receiving the honour.

Cyclist Tom Pidcock and swimmer Duncan Scott are both upgraded to become Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) along with Helen Glover, who came out of retirement to land a rowing silver medal in the women’s four.

Glover, a double gold medallist in London and Rio, was coaxed back for the Paris cycle after giving birth to twins in January 2020 and told the Press Association: “It’s such an honour to be awarded an OBE. I was determined that this Olympic journey would lead to winning a medal in front of three children and I felt supported by the parenting community. It makes me very proud to be recognised for trying to make a difference within this space.”

Meanwhile, nine-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockcroft has been awarded an even higher honour after being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Hannah Cockroft is now a nine-time Paralympic champion (Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Cockroft, who won two more gold medals in Paris when she successfully defended her women’s T34 100m and 800m Paralympic titles, said: “Being put forward for the new year honours list is just the perfect ending to an incredible year. It’s been a big year with two golds and a silver medal at the world championships in Japan in May, two gold medals at the Paralympics in Paris this summer, and a wedding – so it was a surprise to get my letter, but such a proud moment.”

Outside of Olympic and Paralympic sport, former F1 driver and popular commentator Martin Brundle has been made an OBE, as has football manager David Moyes, who most recently coached West Ham, while former Liverpool great and long-time BBC pundit Alan Hansen has been made an MBE.

More than 1,200 people from across the UK have received honours in the New Year list.

Actor Stephen Fry and London mayor Sadiq Khan have been knighted.

Honours have also gone to a host of Team GB athletes, including runner Keely Hodgkinson, who was named the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and mountain biker Tom Pidcock, after the Paris Olympics.

There are also honours for those who campaigned on behalf of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters, after the Horizon IT scandal.

Creator of the Tracy Beaker series, Jacqueline Wilson, has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature, while actress Carey Mulligan and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh become Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature.

Additional reporting by Press Association