🥇OneFootball Awards | Our picks for the best players of the year are...👀 | OneFootball

With the arrival of the Christmas holidays, we enter the final stretch of the year. It’s the time for taking stock, for reflection, and for drawing conclusions as a cycle comes to a close.

Watch the entire Serie BKT live on OneFootball for only €9.99 per month. Click here to purchase the LaB Channel Monthly Pass with no automatic renewal.

It’s time to express our choices and celebrate those who truly made a difference, by awarding the prestigious OneFootball Award. Here is the best player in Serie A for 2025.

1️⃣ Christian Pulisic (Alessandro De Felice)

On one hand, Scott McTominay deservedly and indisputably remains the MVP of Serie A 2024/25, but on the other, Christian Pulisic must be considered a true game-changer and a decisive player from every point of view, which makes him the best in Serie A for the calendar year. The focus, clearly, is on the individual and not on a team that, after a shadowy first half of the year, managed to bounce back thanks to a technical revolution in the summer. 18 goals in the calendar year, from the Supercoppa victory to the elimination against Napoli. Important goals, to which 16 assists must be added.

A devastating impact in both scoring and creating, but also in terms of charisma and leadership for the team. In 2025, Pulisic’s goals and assists earned Milan a total of 17 points in the last championship (plus a goal and an assist in matches where his contribution wasn’t decisive, against Venezia and Udinese), to which we add the two goals in the Italian Supercoppa victory. In this season alone, he has already contributed to 15 points, including wins against Napoli and Inter, thanks to the American’s decisive impact. A truly indispensable player for a Milan dreaming of the Scudetto. The extra man for Allegri’s Diavolo.

2️⃣ Scott McTominay (Alessio D'Errico)

The first part of 2025 was too important not to reward Napoli’s Scotsman, despite a “normal” second half. The first 6 months of the year were out of this world: the mark on Napoli’s Scudetto is his, not entirely but almost completely.

In the final matches when the Partenopei had run out of steam, McTominay was a charismatic driving force, a technical leader, and a relentless goalscorer. Proof of a superiority at times embarrassing for a midfielder who broke the rules of Serie A football.

3️⃣ Mile Svilar (Diego D'Avanzo)

The team that earned the most points in the calendar year is Roma: credit to the Ranieri effect (for sure), credit to Gasperini’s ideas (definitely), but the only constant has been the reliability of Mile Svilar. The Giallorossi goalkeeper is the most decisive player in Serie A who is not a forward, and the numbers prove it: 42.5 expected goals conceded versus only 35 actually conceded in the last Serie A season — that’s 7.5 goals saved in the league.

This season is going even better in all competitions: 18.6 expected goals against, only 13 actually conceded. Svilar is the main factor for this Roma, even in terms of character: a leader who doesn’t shout much, but when he makes a save and then looks at his teammates, only one word comes to mind: Aura. After all, you need plenty of it to be the best player in Serie A in 2025.

4️⃣ Scott McTominay (Emanuele Garbato)

Beyond all imagination. He arrived from Manchester United at the end of the 2024 summer transfer window as a box-to-box midfielder with a knack for scoring, and in the first months at Napoli, he lived up to those promises. But when, at the start of 2025, the club sold Kvara without replacing him, magic happened. The Scotsman not only started scoring in bursts but became a playmaker. He played wide, dribbled, took free kicks, and attracted every important ball. The Scudetto-winning scissor kick against Cagliari is the eternal symbol of a player capable of perfectly executing any request.

Then a new season began, with Kevin De Bruyne added to the midfield. Conte was forced to sacrifice him as a pure left winger, and initially, also due to missing preseason because of injury, he struggled. With the Belgian’s injury, he regained his central role and looked like the usual McFratm, last Serie A’s MVP. However, he showed another side during the midfield emergency. The coach had to drop him into a two-man midfield, asking for a lot of hard work, complex tactical tasks, and cooling his goal-scoring instinct. He responded like a champion, playing the role with such ease that it almost made you forget the feats he’s capable of when called to be decisive in the box. A complete footballer, a tornado that swept through the entire league.

5️⃣ Frank Zambo Anguissa (Marco Alessandri)

That McTominay is the player of the year in Serie A is hardly in doubt. But to name someone else, I’ll go with his Napoli teammate. A big season for the Cameroonian, who with his 6 goals and 5 assists helped Conte lift the Scudetto.

They say it’s always harder to confirm yourself than to establish yourself, and indeed in the league McTominay has so far scored just two goals, proving this rule right. It’s different for Anguissa, who actually seems able to improve on last year’s tally: just a few months ago he finished with 6 goals in 35 appearances, today he’s already at 4 goals in 11 games. Not bad at all.

6️⃣ Tijjani Reijnders (Matteo Rimoldi)

In a Milan dealing with post-Pioli difficulties, Tijjani Reijnders has emerged as the true reference point for the Rossoneri midfield. Under both Fonseca and Conceição, the Dutch talent never lost his shine, confirming himself as an absolute certainty in 2025.

His transfer to Manchester City for 60 million euros shows how much he’s grown: 15 goals scored as a midfielder is an extraordinary haul, confirming a dream year for the former AZ Alkmaar man, who came of age at San Siro.

The recognition as MVP of the midfield, ahead of players like Barella and McTominay, crowned a personal season to remember, while in the Premier League he continues to make headlines with high-level performances.

7️⃣ Scott McTominay (Vincenzo Visco)

Scott McTominay, even if he’s not at his best at this end of the season, has been simply devastating for Napoli and, for me, the MVP of 2025. His performances have often shifted the balance, dragging the team through key moments. Crucial goals, often decisive, timely runs, and a dominant physical presence have made the difference in more than one match.

Even when not at his peak, the impact of the former Manchester United player remained clear: leadership, intensity, and the ability to make a difference at both ends. A player who left a deep mark, proving decisive in results and confirming himself as one of the main factors in Napoli’s journey.

8️⃣ Christian Pulisic (Damiano Benzoni)

It was already clear from his first two seasons at Milan that Pulisic was a top-level player. What we couldn’t have expected is that under Allegri this season he would manage to raise the bar even further. If Milan is back competing at the top after a transitional season, it’s thanks largely to him. The move from the wing to the center of the attack unleashed the American, making him a lethal weapon in Milan’s attack.

Allegri chose to sacrifice Pulisic’s involvement in the build-up to highlight his scoring ability, and was rewarded with a player who needed just 14 shots to score 7 times. And there were some crucial goals, as Pulisic was involved in all three of Milan’s goals in the wins over direct rivals Napoli and Inter, with two goals and an assist.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Timothy Rogers - 2025 Getty Images