10 of the Best Soccer Players of 2025

Looking back at 2025 feels like revisiting a season of pure intensity. The game opened new chapters without closing the old ones.

Emerging talents rose with fearless energy while familiar names held their ground through craft and experience. Some players broke the ceiling we thought existed for them. Others rebuilt their reputations with patience and steady brilliance.

This list reflects the figures who shaped the year through influence, execution, and the trophies that travelled home with them. Football handed them the stage. They answered with performances that echoed across stadiums and living rooms.

10. Harry Kane – Bayern Munich and England

The numbers tell a ridiculous story. Kane wrapped up 2024/25 with 41 goals in 51 games and 14 assists, finally getting his hands on a major trophy when Bayern lifted the Bundesliga.

That 13th-place finish in the Ballon d’Or rankings looked harsh considering what he delivered.

But here’s the thing about Kane in 2025: he somehow found another gear. Through the first half of 2025/26, he already has 30 goals from just 25 matches.

That’s the kind of form that makes defenders wake up in cold sweats. For England, he kept doing what he does best, pushing his record tally to 78 goals with nine strikes in nine games as the Three Lions booked their spot at the 2026 World Cup.

At 31, Kane has entered that sweet spot where experience meets hunger. Every season, people wonder if this will be the year he slows down. Every season, he makes those questions look silly.

9. Achraf Hakimi – PSG and Morocco

Hakimi has spent years establishing himself as one of the most dangerous attacking fullbacks around, but 2024/25 might have been his masterpiece.

Eleven goals and 16 assists for PSG tells you everything about his threat going forward, and he was absolutely crucial in helping the Parisian club finally win the Champions League that had escaped them for so long.

By the time 2025 winds down, he’ll have six trophies sitting in his collection: Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Trophee des Champions, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and the Intercontinental Cup.

That’s a season most players can only dream about. Getting named to the FIFA The Best Men’s XI was the cherry on top.

For Morocco, he wore the captain’s armband with pride, leading them to World Cup qualification and through AFCON 2025. The respect he commands both at club and international level shows just how far he has come.

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8. Erling Haaland – Manchester City and Norway

If we only looked at what Haaland has done in 2025/26, he would be fighting for a top-three spot without question. Twenty-five goals in 23 games, with 19 of those coming in just 17 Premier League appearances, is absolute madness.

The man just cannot stop scoring.

Even in 2024/25, when Manchester City had an off year by their impossibly high standards and walked away empty-handed, Haaland still bagged 34 goals.

That trophy drought hurts his ranking here because individual brilliance only goes so far when the team’s silverware dries up.

Still, calling Haaland anything other than one of the best strikers on the planet would be laughable. His combination of pace, power, and finishing makes him virtually impossible to defend against.

When he gets that half-yard of space in the box, you might as well start the goal celebration.

7. Pedri – Barcelona and Spain

The Barcelona midfielder continues to orchestrate play with a maturity that makes you forget how young he still is. His vision and technical security give the Catalan club something special in the middle of the park.

Pedri was absolutely central to Barcelona’s trophy haul in 2024/25, pulling the strings in midfield as they claimed La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa de España.

His ability to control tempo and find passes that others cannot see has made him one of the most complete midfielders in Europe.

What stands out most is his composure under pressure. When games get tight and defenses sit deep, Pedri finds solutions.

He keeps possession moving, creates space for teammates, and rarely wastes the ball. That combination of intelligence and technique has made him absolutely vital to how Barcelona play.

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6. Raphinha – Barcelona and Brazil

A hamstring problem has kept Raphinha sidelined for chunks of 2025/26, limiting him to just 11 La Liga appearances. Even in that limited time, seven goals and three assists showed he has not lost any of the consistency that made him so valuable.

What he did in 2024/25 was simply extraordinary.

As Barcelona swept up La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa de España, Raphinha was arguably their best player.

Sixty goal contributions – 34 goals and 26 assists – across the season is the kind of output you expect from the biggest names in football.

The Brazilian does not get the same media attention as some other superstars, which feels unfair given what he has delivered over the past year.

While others grab headlines for their social media presence or off-field drama, Raphinha just keeps producing at an elite level. His performances deserve way more recognition than they get.

5. Mohamed Salah – Liverpool and Egypt

Salah spent the first half of 2025 making headlines for all the right reasons.

The Egyptian was absolutely electric as Liverpool shocked everyone by winning the Premier League in Arne Slot’s debut season. His goals, assists, and overall play carried Liverpool through some tight moments.

The 2025/26 campaign has seen a dip in his form, though he still has five goals and four assists to his name.

That drop-off is noticeable, but writing off what Salah achieved over the past 12 months would be completely wrong. The quality and intelligence he showed, especially during that title run, reminded everyone why he has been one of the Premier League’s best for so many years.

The concern now is whether we just witnessed his final peak at the very top level. Time will tell, but what a peak it was.

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4. Kylian Mbappe – Real Madrid and France

Mbappé’s first season at Real Madrid was marked by some mixed results.

The UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup are nice additions to the trophy cabinet, but missing out on La Liga and the Champions League probably cost him any real chance at the 2025 Ballon d’Or.

Those early months in Spain were tricky. Moving to Madrid always comes with massive expectations, and it took him a bit to find his rhythm in late 2024.

Once everything clicked, though, the goals started flowing. He finished his debut season with 44 strikes for Los Blancos, which would be career-defining numbers for most players but feels almost routine for him.

This season has been electric from the start.

Twenty-nine goals in 24 appearances across 2025/26 show Mbappe firing on all cylinders. With the World Cup coming up next year, expect him to raise his game even more. France will need him at his absolute best, and based on current form, that looks very likely.

For now, he sits just outside the top three, but that could easily change over the next 12 months.

3. Vitinha – PSG and Portugal

Nobody saw this coming. At the start of 2025, Vitinha was barely in the conversation for top 10 players worldwide, let alone top three. The midfielder who could not quite make it work at Wolves has spent the past year completely transforming his reputation.

He collected all six trophies with PSG and added the Nations League with Portugal for good measure. Beyond just accumulating medals, though, Vitinha has been sensational in the matches that matter most.

He gave PSG a level of control in midfield they never had before, dictating tempo and making everything flow through him.

That Champions League hat-trick against Tottenham was the moment everyone truly took notice.

After the match, Luis Enrique could not hide his admiration: “If you have to judge Vitinha’s level, you have to look at last season, you have to look at his first season, how he changed the way we attack, how he improved the way we manage games. He loves playing football; he wants to train every day. These are the kinds of players you have to keep in check.”

The Portuguese midfielder has become indispensable to how PSG play.

His journey from struggling in the Premier League to being one of the best midfielders in the world makes for one of the best stories in football right now.

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2. Lamine Yamal – Barcelona and Spain

Yamal was only 17 years old when 2025 began. Think about that for a second. Most teenagers are worrying about school exams, and this kid was already being talked about as one of the most exciting talents in world football.

The past 12 months only added to his legend. Three trophies with Barcelona, including La Liga, showed he can deliver when the pressure is highest.

His nine goals and 11 assists in the league proved this was no flash in the pan. Then he went and lit up the Champions League whenever Barcelona took the field, even though they fell short in the semi-finals.

Already in 2025/26, he has 20 goal contributions – nine goals and 11 assists – and still has half a season to add to those numbers. The scary thing is that he keeps getting better. Every match brings new moments of magic, new skills, new ways of tearing apart defences.

Yamal has secured his place among the elite for what looks like the next decade or more. The only question now is just how high his ceiling actually goes.

1. Ousmane Dembele – PSG and France

Here we are. Ousmane Dembele sits at number one, and honestly, after the year he had, it makes perfect sense.

Before 2025, Dembele carried a reputation as talented but frustrating. Everyone could see the ability was there, but consistency always seemed just out of reach. Injuries, form dips, questionable decisions – they all stopped him from becoming what everyone thought he could be.

Then 2025 happened, and everything changed.

Dembele finally put it all together and showed the world exactly what he can do when everything clicks. The results were spectacular.

PSG lifting their first-ever Champions League trophy was the crowning achievement, and Dembele was the driving force behind it. Eight goals and six assists across 15 games in the competition tell part of the story, but watching him play tells the whole thing.

He was unplayable at times, destroying defences with his pace, skill, and decision-making.

Injuries have disrupted his 2025/26 campaign, which is frustrating but does not change what happened. For those glorious months in 2025, Ousmane Dembele was the best footballer.

He delivered when it mattered most, helped his team win the trophy they wanted more than any other, and finally fulfilled that massive potential everyone always said he had.

After years of wondering what if, Dembele gave us the answer. And what an answer it was.

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Honorable Mentions

• Declan Rice 
• Nuno Mendes 
• Joao Neves 
• Michael Olise 
• Gianluigi Donnarumma 
• Marquinhos  
• Michael Olise 
• Luis Diaz 
• Willian Pacho
• Dominik Szoboszlai