With the final phase of last season and the first six league matches of this season, assessments can now be made about who the 2025 Champions men have been.
Arsenal’s number one is an absolute guarantee between the sticks. Together with Gabriel and Saliba they form a practically impregnable trident.
Only PSG, European champions, managed to overcome Arteta’s barrier, and even so, their elimination served to make Raya come back stronger. Only Karl-Lennart, from Bayern Munich, has been able to beat the Spanish goalkeeper, who has kept five of six clean sheets so far in the Champions League.
David Raya is living one of his best moments at 30 years old and with his sights set on the summer World Cup.
There are not enough words to describe the Moroccan’s performance in the final phase of the Champions League last year: he scored in the quarterfinals, semis and the final. Luis Enrique’s scheme favored him and Hakimi knew how to perfectly interpret his role within a champion team.
This season they have played four of six games. A serious sprain to his right ankle, caused by a dangerous tackle by Luis Díaz, has temporarily slowed him down, although his impact remains indisputable.
The Italian, as a group with his defensive teammates, completed the final phase of last year almost perfectly, although the final ended with a painful 5-0 against the Parisian team.
At the beginning of 2025, they closed the league phase with only one goal conceded, and this season they kept a clean sheet in the first four games. Only the goals from Atlético de Madrid and Liverpool dirty the statistics of the Italian ‘kaiser’.
One of the great revelations of last year. He established himself as one of the center backs of the present and the future and won the Champions League, providing the security that a leader requires in Luis Enrique’s defense.
This year he has two goals in six games, which makes him one of the highest scoring defenders in the competition. The Ecuadorian continues to justify the investment of the French club after his signing from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Profile very similar to Hakimi. The Portuguese played his role perfectly and his inexhaustible energy made him one of the players of the year. He scored four goals and distributed two assists.
He was decisive in assisting Kvaratskhelia, scorer of a goal in the final, and still had plenty of legs to cover the few defensive holes of the French team.
The brain of Luis Enrique’s team. He improved all his teammates and established himself as one of the leaders.
His statistics do not fully reflect his level: two goals and two assists in 17 games. This season, however, he seems determined to climb the table: in six games he has already accumulated four goals and two assists.
The canary was the Barça version of Vitinha. As conductor, he guided Lamine, Raphinha and Lewandowski in what many consider the best Barcelona of the last 10 years.
Thanks to his performance, Barça was just a few minutes away from reaching the Champions League final again after a decade. This season he has missed two games and has only provided one assist; His physical problems partly explain the culé’s decline in the league phase.
The one from Los Palacios had his best season in a dream midfield. He added four assists and a goal, although of those goals one was a real great goal that gave his team peace of mind in the semi-final second leg against Arsenal at the Parc des Princes.
This season he has five games, one goal and one assist.
His 2025 has been synonymous with consecration. The Spanish international led Barça in games such as the semifinals against Inter in the Champions League.
In LaLiga he has only two fewer goals than last year. The new Blaugrana ’10’ only raises one question: where is his ceiling?
The great scorer on the list. The Frenchman has been, without a doubt, the most lethal striker of the year.
After a hesitant start with Real Madrid, he has responded to the murmurs and criticism. He has accumulated 29 goals so far this season, added to the 37 at the end of last year. The only drawback of his season has been not winning titles with the most successful club in Europe.
The Ballon d’Or winner has completed the best season of his career. Luis Enrique transformed him, turning him into a more complete and decisive footballer.
His leadership of the best team in Europe earned him the most coveted award for football stars.
