The best of 2025: Kane, Salah and Mbappe shine in Europe´s top five leagues

The curtain is coming down on another year, which has seen some brilliant footballing moments.

Arne Slot, Vincent Kompany, Hansi Flick and Antonio Conte all led their respective teams to league titles in their first campaigns at the helm in 2024-25, while Luis Enrique oversaw the second treble of his career at Paris Saint-Germain.

And the second half of the year has not disappointed either, with all the leagues shaping up nicely heading into 2026.

But which teams, and players, have stood out across the last 12 months? Here we use Opta data to showcase some of the best that Europe’s top five leagues had to offer in 2025.

Salah and Haaland steal Premier League spotlight

While certain Premier League teams have stood out at different points of the year for different reasons, two players in particular stole the spotlight.

Mohamed Salah finished 2024-25 with 47 goal involvements overall (29 goals, 18 assists), equalling the Premier League record held by both Andrew Cole (1993-94) and Alan Shearer (1994-95), respectively.

And just a few weeks ago, he broke the record for the most goal involvements with a single Premier League club by reaching 277 for Liverpool (188 goals, 89 assists), overhauling Wayne Rooney’s total at Manchester United.

Erling Haaland also lit up the Premier League, writing his name into the record books once again.

The Norwegian reached 100 Premier League goals, achieving that figure in just 111 appearances, faster than any other player in the competition’s history.

Haaland also brought up his 200th goal involvement in Europe’s top five leagues (165 games), reaching the milestone faster than Kylian Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Kane leads Bayern’s charge

Bayern Munich gave no other team a look in during 2025, as they became the first side in Bundesliga history to sit top of the table at the end of every matchday across a whole calendar year (34/34).

They scored 107 league goals, the best record in Europe’s top-five leagues, so it is no surprise that Harry Kane enjoyed another record-breaking year.

He scored 51 goals in all competitions – among Bundesliga players, only Robert Lewandowski (58) has scored more in a calendar year (2021).

Kane also reached 100 goal involvements in his 78th league match, becoming the quickest player to hit that mark since data collection began in 2004-05.

PSG make history

This year has been one that PSG will not forget in a hurry after their historic treble-winning campaign in 2024-25.

They set a new points record in an 18-team Ligue 1 season (84), and had the best average points per game (2.5) in Europe’s top five leagues in 2024-25.

And PSG became just the second European first-division team to win six titles in a single calendar year (Champions League, Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Super Cup, Trophee des Champions and Intercontinental Cup), after Barcelona (2009).

They finished 2025 with 50 victories across all competitions, the highest total for a Ligue 1 team in a single calendar year.

Mbappe outshines Flick’s Barcelona

Barcelona showed their goalscoring prowess, netting 169 goals in 60 matches across all competitions, their most in a single calendar year without Messi.

Lamine Yamal has impressed and is one of only two players in the top five leagues to score 20+ goals (21) and provide 20+ assists (21) across all competitions, alongside Michael Olise.

But the standout LaLiga player was Mbappe. He took Real Madrid by storm, scoring 59 goals in all competitions, equalling Ronaldo’s record from 2013.

He also became the highest-scoring Madrid player in their debut season, netting 43 times in 2024-25 in all competitions.

Conte lifts Napoli

Napoli lifted the trophy on the final day of 2024-25 after collecting just 82 points; in the three-points-per-win era, it is the joint-lowest tally by Italian champions in a 20-team campaign.

They became the first team in the history of the 20-team Serie A to win the Scudetto after finishing 10th the previous season, bettering the record set by Conte’s Juventus in 2011-12 (seventh).

Scott McTominay was one of their keys to success, registering 16 goal involvements (12 goals, four assists), matching the best record for a debut Serie A season.

Inter have been in the mix at the top throughout 2025, with captain Lautaro Martinez spurring them onwards; he scored 15 league goals, a joint-high in the competition (with Riccardo Orsolini).