It's been a glorious campaign for certain coaches, clubs and players – but an absolute nightmare for others…
Well, that's a wrap. The 2024-25 European season came to a stunning end on Saturday in Munich, where Paris Saint-Germain finally got their hands on the European Cup by hammering Inter 5-0 in the Champions League final.
It was a sensational victory for Desire Doue, Luis Enrique and especially PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, for whom the trophy had become an obsession.
The Europa League final was far less impressive but just as significant for Tottenham, who, like PSG, have long been mocked for their lack of success in the games that matter. In the Conference League, Chelsea inevitably romped to victory, while there were also dominant domestic title triumphs for Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
In Italy, though, there was further disappointment for Inter, who conceded a 90th-minute penalty to Lazio on the penultimate matchday to essentially gift the title to Napoli.
So, all things considered, who were the biggest winners and losers of the 2024-25 season? GOAL breaks it all down below…
AFPWINNER: Luis Enrique
Whatever one thinks about the project at Paris Saint-Germain, one thing that we can all agree on is that Luis Enrique is not only a great coach, he's also a decent human being. It was, thus, beautiful to see the PSG fans unveil a huge tifo at the Allianz Arena on Saturday dedicated to the Spaniard's daughter Xana, who tragically passed away at the age of nine six years ago.
It was also nice to hear former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique getting some long overdue credit after becoming just the second coach to win a treble with two different European clubs.
"Does he deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola? The answer is yes," ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said on . "This team he has created and put together over the past year or two can beat you in any given way. The talent across this squad – it is a special group of players and they're getting coached by a special person as well."
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: The idea that money can't buy success
Usually, the emergence of an exciting young team is a cause for celebration – and there's no denying that Chelsea have proven themselves an exuberant force to be reckoned with this season by securing a return to the Champions League before then winning the Conference League. There's also an awful lot to like about the way in which Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and, in particular, Cole Palmer play the game. However, Chelsea's success doesn't sit well with an awful lot of people – simply because of the way in which they've gone about it.
The club's owners are self-styled 'disruptors' and they've undoubtedly turned the transfer market on its head by paying mad money for as many young players as possible, handing out ludicrously long contracts (for as long as they could) and creating 'bomb squads' to ruthlessly force unwanted players out of the club.
And the terrible thing is, this scattergun strategy has worked. While other clubs have found themselves restricted by financial regulations, Chelsea have got around them by exploiting loopholes and effectively selling their own assets to themselves.
Consequently, it was impossible for neutrals to get excited by the sight of the most expensive squad in football beating Real Betis in Wroclow on Wednesday, as Chelsea boasted two separate players (Caicedo and Enzo) worth more than Manuel Pellegrini's entire squad combined (£84.5m), which only served as a reminder that money can still buy success no matter how incompetent the people throwing it around.
Indeed, the game in Poland really did prove that if you throw enough sh*t at a wall, some of it is bound to stick – and that's certainly not something worth celebrating.
AFPWINNER: Hansi Flick
Full disclosure: we feared for Hansi Flick before the season began. After all, Barcelona had sacked club legend Xavi in the most unceremonious of circumstances – and less than a year after he'd won La Liga. So we had serious concerns over what might happen if Flick's team failed to hit the ground running.
We need not have worried, though. Flick and his coaching team quickly whipped Barca into shape, making them fitter and, thus, better than they'd ever been under Xavi – and several of his predecessors. Indeed, we've not seen such a strong Barca side since Luis Enrique's treble-winners, and there's not been a more exciting team to watch in Europe for years.
With their ridiculously high line and wonderful array of attackers, Barca pretty much guarantee goals, as so thrillingly underlined by the epic Champions League semi-final against Inter. The Catalans lost that particular shootout at San Siro, but their high-risk approach was rewarded in Spain, with Barca winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa – by repeatedly getting the better of hated rivals Real Madrid, which only this season's success all the sweeter for the supporters.
Barca still have plenty of problems off the field but they’ve very few issues on it thanks to Flick, who has done an amazing job amid all of the chaos and controversy surrounding the club.
AFPLOSER: Ajax
Newcastle 1995-96, Inter 2001-02, Real Madrid 2003-04, Liverpool 2013-14, Botafogo 2023 – and now Ajax 2024-25 must be added to the list of the biggest bottle-jobs the game has ever seen.
It's obviously a harsh title and there are usually mitigating circumstances, but sometimes it really is just a case of teams cracking under the pressure of trying to wrap up a title – and that's unquestionably true of Ajax.
When Francesco Farioli's men won 2-0 in Eindhoven on March 30, they moved nine points clear of hosts PSV with just seven rounds remaining. Ajax's players insisted that nothing had been decided and they were, of course, correct. But even Luuk de Jong conceded that PSV had left themselves with too much ground to make up: "I don't think it's ever happened before that a team has been overtaken with such a lead and with so few games remaining," the skipper said.
The likelihood of PSV catching Ajax decreased even further after the leaders came from a goal down on April 13 to beat Willem II to maintain their nine-point advantage with five games to go. However, what followed was a collapse of epic proportions, as Ajax failed to win any of their next four Eredivisie matches, thus allowing PSV to replace them at the top of the table before clinching the title with a final-day win at Sparta Rotterdam.
De Jong was in a joyous state of disbelief: "After going nine points behind, we'd already given up!" Farioli, though, was in floods of tears and resigned soon after failing to arrest one of the most unexpected slides in football history.
