The DiCaprio Effect: 5 sports jinxes that can be broken this year, in true Leo style

The solemn monologues about the unforgivable prejudices of the Academy will be missed, and so will the memes (but maybe not all of them; some were pretty disturbing and unfunny). In case you haven't heard, today Leonardo DiCaprio broke one of pop culture's most talked about jinxes by winning the Oscar for Best Actor. The Revenant was a painstaking experience, both for the makers and the viewers, so clearly it deserved a bunch of awards.But jinxes are not restricted to Hollywood; our very own sports world is filled with them too. Athletes and teams spend years, sometimes decades, trying to win that elusive piece of silverware, only to be thwarted at the last hurdle amid much gnashing of teeth.Some, like the case of Benfica, are steeped in tales of voodoo magic and personal vendetta. Others, like the Kevin Durant hoodoo, are a tad more colourful and modern-Twitter-rapper-inspired.Of all the innumerable sporting jinxes, I could count at least five that stand a good chance of being broken this year. Here's a look at each of them:

#1 A team defending the Champions League title

Can Neymar, Messi and Suarez help Barcelona break the Champions League jinx this year?

The UEFA Champions League is, by all accounts, one of the most intense and competitive tournaments in the world – if not the most. No other tournament, in any sport, is as immune to the 'fairytale run’ as the Champions League. In the tournament's rich and spectacular history, you won't find a team that ‘defied all the odds’ to script an unlikely title march that no one saw coming. At least not since 1992, the beginning of the Champions League era.

So it makes sense that each UCL champion in this 24-year period has been saddled with a unique and occasionally ignored jinx. No team has managed to defend a Champions League title; there has never been an instance of a team winning the tournament two years in a row.

AC Milan came close in 1994-95; after winning the title in 1993-94, they went all the way to the final the next year too. But they stumbled against Ajax, going down 1-0 after an 85th-minute winner by ex-Milanese Frank Rijkaard.

Ajax then had a chance to achieve the feat themselves in the very next edition; as the defending champions, they pushed Juventus all the way in the 1996 final. But the Old Lady had the last word, as old ladies tend to do, and they emerged triumphant 4-2 in a penalty shootout.

The Manchester United faithful will be quick to tell you that the Red Devils had a shot at breaking the curse too. After winning the title in 2007-08 they reached the summit clash again in 2008-09, this time against a raging Barcelona. But their hopes were quickly doused in a 2-0 loss that marked the start of Lionel Messi's reign over world football.

Juventus are the only other team to have had a chance of breaking the jinx, but they faltered against Borussia Dortmund in the 1996-97 final. Incidentally, that makes it three consecutive teams who had the chance to win two in a row – Milan in 1995, Ajax in 1996 and Juventus in 1997.

Barcelona, of course, are dead-set on turning this jinx into an afterthought. After completing the treble last year they only seem to have gotten better this season, with the Messi-Suarez-Neymar trio taking on new and unprecedented levels of intimidation.

At the moment no team seems capable of knocking Barcelona off their perch, and there is little to suggest anyone other than the Blaugrana will be lifting the trophy come 28th May. But as we've all learned in the past two decades, it's never as easy as it looks.

Barcelona may be the favourites to defend their title, but they will have to give their absolute best, and hope for good fortune to be on their side, to break this long-standing jinx.

#2 South Africa winning a world championship

Even Superman AB de Villiers has not been immune to South Africa's jinx

The South African cricket team's trysts with misfortune and misery at multi-sport events are the stuff of folklore. It all started with the infamous 22-off-one-ball rain-affected farce at the 1992 World Cup, and things haven't got any rosier in the years since.

At the 1996 World Cup they were unarguably the best team in the group stage, but a Brian Lara-inspired West Indies knocked them out in the quarterfinals. The 1999 World Cup saw Lance Klusener achieve mythical heights with his big hitting, only for everything to come crashing down in that one moment of madness which resulted in Alan Donald's run out.

The 2003 World Cup disaster was perhaps the most comical, and at the same time also the most cringe-worthy. All that Mark Boucher had to do was take a single off the last ball of the 45th over, and the Proteas would have progressed through the Duckworth-Lewis method. But a tragic case of misinformation meant that Boucher thought South Africa were home already, and as he calmly dead-batted Muttiah Muralitharan's last ball he practically signed the death warrant of Shaun Pollock's captaincy stint .

The 2015 World Cup saw rain wreak havoc on the Proteas’ chances again, as they were deprived of their full quota of overs against an inspired New Zealand side. More fateful drama was to follow during the Kiwi chase though as South Africa's normally excellent fielding unit came undone at the death, with a series of catches and run-out chances being missed.

Their history in the T20 version of ICC's world championship hasn't been much happier. At the 2007 World T20, a tournament that they hosted, they let India off the hook in the Super 8 match by first allowing them to recover from 61 for 4 in the 10th over, and then making a mess of a seemingly straightforward chase of 153. At the 2010 World T20 they suffered a similar fate, this time against Pakistan, as they failed to chase down 148 after being comfortably placed at the 15th over mark of their innings.

Losses to Pakistan and India in the semifinals of the 2009 World T20 and 2014 World T20 respectively are further proof that facing an Asian team in a knockout match at an ICC tournament is not a good omen for the Proteas. Actually scratch that – playing any knockout match in an ICC tournament is not a good omen for South Africa; prior to the 2015 World Cup, they had actually lost every single one of their knockout games in ICC world championships.

Will things be different at this year's World T20 tournament? Faf du Plessis’s men certainly have a batting lineup that can put the fear of God in any opposition team. With AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla going berserk at the top, Du Plessis and JP Duminy providing fast-paced solidity in the middle order, and David Miller and Chris Morris waiting to explode toward the end, the batting firepower that South Africa possess is undeniable.

I hate to say ‘once a choker, always a choker', but it's about time South Africa put up a performance that breaks the hoodoo of their knockout games’ curse. The 2016 World T20 is as good a chance as any they'll ever have.

#3 Novak Djokovic winning the French Open

Parisian clay hasn't been kind to Novak Djokovic over the years

It's a coronation that's been about five years in the making. Ever since Novak Djokovic decided, back in 2011, to stop playing second fiddle to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, he's been constantly threatening to bag the only big title missing from his CV – the French Open. The question has long since stopped about being ‘if'; it's only a matter of ‘when'. Or so we've believed.

Djokovic entered the 2011 French Open as the hot favourite, riding a 43-match winning streak that included two wins over Nadal on clay. But unfortunately for him Federer decided this was the time to remind everyone that he wasn't done yet, and the Swiss ace put on a masterclass to end Djokovic's streak in the semifinal.

In 2012 you probably wouldn't have blamed the Serb if he had sent a glare or two at the skies, as a rain interruption snapped all of his momentum in the final against Nadal. 2013 had the ridiculously unforeseeable net touch that led to a break back with the finish line in sight, and 2014 was a bit of a cesspool of errors and nerves that alternated with puking and cramping under the hot sun, none of which is an ingredient for success.

All that led us to 2015, the year that Djokovic was going to emphatically, unequivocally and emotionally break the jinx for good. How could he possibly not win the trophy after straight-setting Nadal in the quarters? Who is Stan Wawrinka, really? As it turns out, Wawrinka is the man who will always be remembered, for producing the most powerfully exhilarating Slam final performance in the Open Era.

So 2016 is the year, surely? The Serb is soaring even higher over the field now than he was last year – if that was even possible. And there's no question he's supremely comfortable playing on clay; I'd even go as far as saying he's been the best claycourt player in the world for the past two years. Is there anyone even remotely capable of halting Djokovic's quest for immortality?

Maybe not, but stranger things have happened – in Djokovic's career alone. The jinx is alive and well, and it's up to the Serb to put an end to it.

#4 Pakistan defeating India in a world championship

Pakistan have had more than 2 decades of futility in their World Cup matches against India

This is probably the least likely of all the jinxes in this list to be broken. And that's not because Pakistan are a terrible team or India are the second coming of The Invincibles; it's because, after so many years of eerily fixed patterns and seemingly inevitable results, it's hard to imagine what Pakistan can do to reverse the trend.

1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 – the year may change, the format may change, the location may change, but the outcome never does. For every trampoline jump by Javed Miandad and finger-wagging gesture by Aamir Sohail, there has been a rampaging 98 by Sachin Tendulkar or a composed Virat Kohli hundred in response.

Pakistan will get another crack at their neighbours in the 2016 World T20, but their fans would be forgiven for being resigned to another desultory loss already. Is there any hope for them at all?

Well yes, of course there is. Hope, like the swirling air that we breathe and the twinkling stars that we gaze at in awe, is the one constant that transcends all manner of hexes, jinxes and curses. And as Mohammad Amir showed a couple of days ago, even a target of 84 can sometimes look like a mountain too high to climb.

Still, it would be tough to find anyone willing to put money on a Pakistan win next month; I am almost tempted to call this the mother of all jinxes.

#5 Someone other than Messi or Ronaldo winning the Ballon d\'Or

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and their Ballon d’Or stranglehold

Okay, I'll admit that including this in the list is playing fast and loose with the word 'jinx'. But eight years of an award being so thoroughly dominated by two players is a phenomenon that is worthy of being included in every list there is.

It's actually Cristiano Ronaldo, and not Lionel Messi, who first put his stamp on the award – back in 2008, on the back of Manchester United's double-winning season. That was followed by Messi scooping up the award four years in a row; despite the jury members being accused of favouritism and short-sightedness, there was little doubting the Argentine's skills and impact on the game.

Ronaldo was not to be quieted though, and he raised his game several notches higher to win back-to-back Ballon d’Ors in 2013 and 2014. The supposedly global award had become the personal plaything of two squabbling prodigies, and the rest of the world's players could only watch from afar, wistfully wishing they could lay their hands on the coveted trophy.

Messi, of course, resumed his hold over the honour as he won it for a record-extending fifth time this year. It's been eight years since anyone not named Messi or Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or, which is an incredible statistic whichever way you look at it.

The likes of Iniesta, Neuer, Xavi, Sneijder and Ribery have all had to settle for the consolation prize in this period, and that can't possibly have been fun for them. Can you imagine being as talented as Iniesta, and still being reduced to an also-ran in the eyes of the football world?

But nothing is forever, and 2016 could well be the year when the stranglehold is finally broken. Luis Suarez is making an irresistible case for himself this season, and Ronaldo hasn't been at his best lately. Messi has been his usual brilliant self, that's true, but one great player being at the top of his game is certainly more amenable to an upset than two great players sweeping aside everything that comes in their way.

The odds might still not be particularly high that neither Messi nor Ronaldo will walk away with the prize next January, but they're better than they've been in years.