Champions League end-of-season awards for 2024/25 | OneFootball

Following the conclusion of the 2024/25 Champions League season, it’s time to dish out our end-of-season awards.

The best player, manager, game and goal are all celebrated in our rundown of the best moments from the Champions League campaign.

Champions League end-of-season awards for 2024/25

Player of the Season

Paris Saint-Germain are champions of Europe for the first time and few had a bigger role in their long-awaited success than Ousmane Dembele. Luis Enrique has insisted that Dembele deserves the Ballon d’Or. It’s difficult to argue after a campaign of this quality.

Dembele was directly involved in 14 goals for PSG in this season’s Champions League and was the difference-maker as their bid for glory accelerated. He scored six times in the club’s final three league phase games as PSG recovered from a poor start to progress, before getting better and better as the tournament went on.

Dembele netted crucial winners in 1-0 wins at Liverpool and Arsenal in the knockout rounds, assisted in both legs of the quarter-final win over Aston Villa, and set up two goals in the record-breaking final win over Inter. Above all, he epitomised the fluidity and intensity of Enrique’s side, deserved winners of the competition.

Young Player of the Season

There’s a growing argument that we’ve never seen anything like Lamine Yamal before. Not even Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo were performing like this at this age.

Yamal was electric during Barcelona’s run to the semi-finals, scoring five times and creating four more. He scored a sensational goal in the last four against Inter Milan and instilled pure fear into opposition sides whenever he picked up possession.

The technique, decision-making and passing range are already elite. Make no mistake, Yamal is a Ballon d’Or contender and he does not turn 18 until the summer.

Manager of the Season

Luis Enrique etched his name into Paris Saint-Germain history as the first head coach to lead the side to their Champions League holy grail. Enrique is just the seventh coach to win the Champions League with multiple clubs and only the second to guide two clubs to the trophy as part of a treble.

PSG might have resources that dwarf their domestic rivals and the ability to spend big in pursuit of success, but many have tried and failed to turn the Parisian project into a Champions League-winning one. Enrique has built a side with a suffocating press, who work for one another, and who, crucially, are liberated to express themselves. In an era of robotic passing patterns and in which individuality is stifled, Enrique has bucked the trend to make PSG watchable winners. They’ve been a pleasure to watch.

Goal of the Season

Declan Rice had never scored a free-kick in his senior career before Arsenal’s quarter-final first leg with Real Madrid. He departed the pitch at full-time having scored two of the finest free-kicks you’ll ever see to stun the Spanish side.

Rice’s first was bent brilliantly around the Real Madrid wall, but his second was utterly unsaveable.

Just look at that angle. Postage-stamped into the top corner.

Save of the Season

You have to cast your mind back all the way to Matchday One for our Save of the Season. David Raya’s stunning double stop against Atalanta takes the crown

The Arsenal goalkeeper guessed right to save Mateo Retegui’s penalty for Atalanta, before springing back into action to save the follow-up. Lightning reflexes from Raya to earn his side a point in Bergamo.

Best Newcomer

Paris Saint-Germain made Desire Doue one of the most expensive teenagers of all time last summer, spending €50m to sign the winger from Rennes. That fee already looks like a bargain following a sublime breakout campaign.

Doue has looked at ease on the biggest stage this season. He’s scored 15 goals in all competitions to win Ligue 1’s Young Player of the Year. In Europe, he was involved in eight goals in just eight starts as PSG won the Champions League for the first time.

The 19-year-old saved the best for last with a man-of-the-match performance in the final. He created the opener against Inter Milan and scored twice himself, becoming the first teenager to score a brace in a Champions League final.

Doue has been phenomenal and fearless, the perfect embodiment of PSG’s new recruitment model. He’s both the present and the future of this team.

Best Game

Inter Milan 4-3 Barcelona (AET), 6th May 2025

Inter Milan and Barcelona delivered arguably the greatest-ever Champions League semi-final. It was pulsating drama over both legs, with Inter prevailing 7-6 on aggregate after a dramatic turnaround in the return.

Having led 2-0 at the San Siro, Inter appeared to have imploded as Barcelona fought back. Second-half goals from Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo levelled the tie before Raphinha’s 87th-minute goal looked to have sent the Spaniards into the final.

That was, until, Francesco Acerbi took matters into his own hands. The veteran centre-back abandoned his post to venture forward in stoppage time and connected with a 93rd-minute cross to equalise. Incredibly, it was the 37-year-old’s first-ever European goal.

Momentum suitably shifted, Davide Frattessi found a winner in extra time to send Inter into the final.

Read – PSG finally reach Champions League holy grail and have potential for dominance

See more – The five youngest goalscorers in a Champions League final

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