Lamine Yamal, di 18-year-old Barcelona star, don win di LALIGA EA SPORTS Player of di Season for 2025/2026. Di award, wey LALIGA present in partnership with EA Sports, come after di young baller score 16 goals and provide 12 assists for di season, wey help Barcelona defend dia title with 94 points.
Di Blaugrana number 10 don show say e get skills wey dem no fit doubt, wey make am be one of di main architects of di Catalan team impressive statistics. E score important goals and provide key assists for di season, wey make Barcelona win di league with seven games to spare.
Di season start with Lamine Yamal scoring for di opening game against Mallorca, wey be im first goal as adult. E celebrate am by conducting im own coronation. Hansi Flick, di Barcelona coach, say e no dey like am but e talk to di player and say if e want to do am, na im decision.
Barcelona effectively wrap di title against city rivals Espanyol with seven games to spare. Lamine Yamal head towards di line, arms out like Usain Bolt. Dem mathematically wrap am in week 35, di first time a clásico bring di championship to close in 94 years.
Di season get plenty drama for Real Madrid side. After di dressing room fight between Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni wey end with Valverde taken to hospital and stitched up, suffering craniofacial trauma, Marcus Rashford deliver di knockout blow for Barcelona. Barcelona play for three different homes and win every game for all of dem.
Di clásico be dia 11th win in a row, dia 23rd win in 25 games since di previous one. How different things look now. In late-October, at a time when Barcelona concerned coach warn say ego kills success, Rayo identify The Flick Line, and dem slice open by Sevilla, Madrid win 2-1 at Santiago Bernabéu to go five points clear.
Dat night, Jude Bellingham call Lamine Yamal talk cheap, accompanying dat line with Elvis A Little Less Conversation, and Dani Carvajal give am di old jibber-jabber gesture. But Madrid get mouth of dia own to worry about, Vinícius Júnior stomp off with 18 minutes left. Xabi Alonso say e want to focus on wetin really matter, but e turn out say dat na wetin really matter.
With di coach abandoned, things begin to unravel, fault-lines reveal and deepen. Barcelona Super Cup win di next time dem meet finally close a spell in charge wey Alonso feel start too soon, unhappily heading to di Club World Cup, and den end too soon as well. A new manager come wey no fit really manage either, Álvaro Arbeloa saying all di right things wey no be di right things at all.
E offer im grey sofa for im players to open up from and bring dem doughnuts when dem perform well but dat no dey often. I no be Gandalf, e say and by di time sport biggest rivals meet again in May, Madrid dey out of Europe, out of di cup, and almost out of dia minds.
Divided and just wanting am done, 90 minutes later dem dey out of di title race too, 12 points behind with nine left in play and empty-handed again like last season. As for Kylian Mbappé, e just dey out, slipping off to Sicily. Two days later and more than 10 years since e last face di media, president Florentino Pérez go full Trump in an incoherent press conference wey explain nothing and kind of explain am all.
At least e identify Madrid problem and fix am: di ABC newspaper. E cancel im subscription. Barcelona be champions, di trophy miraculously handed out on di night e actually win den ride round di city. Dem carry di Super Cup on board too but no fit take di European Cup, wey be di one dem most want.
Madrid no fit take am either, dia better nights reserved for di competition but still no good enough. Villarreal and Athletic no escape di league phase, although San Mamés be di only place wey champions PSG no score. Atlético Madrid, wey knock Barcelona out of both cups and long since let go of di league, get closest but ultimately get nothing.
Arsenal knock dem out of dia first semi-final in a decade and for dia first Copa del Rey final for 13 years dem dey Matarazzoed, Real Sociedad winning on penalties: a backup goalkeeper make di final save and plant a kiss on di cheek of a former ballboy wey den run up and score di winner, full-back Álvaro Odriozola, wey no even play, saying e no go swap dis for anything in humanity.
Barcelona, Madrid, Atlético and Villarreal, wey finish third, go get another chance next year, along with Betis wey take di new, fifth Champions League spot. Below dem, cup winners Real Sociedad dey joined in Europe by Celta Vigo and Getafe, whose manager Pepe Bordalás say qualification go go down in football history.
Dat dey pushing am, but when dem start di season Getafe get 13 first-teamers available and two of those be goalkeepers. When dem reach halfway, for di relegation zone, things so desperate dem play full-back Allan Nyom up front. Bordalás insist I no go wish dis on anyone – and e inflict a lot of pretty bad things on a lot of people.
Yet somehow, when dem reach di end, having sign four little-known loanees in January, dem be seventh. Dem do am dia way: Getafe get di second fewest goals as well as di lowest possession, fewest shots and most fouls. Caught up somewhere in Getafe celebratory pitch invasion at di end of di final day, be a dozen or so red shirts.
Relegation-threatened Osasuna players still dey out there waiting for di night other games to finish so dem fit discover dia fate, di captain calling those final minutes spent with iPads, phones and radios agonising, di worst feeling I ever get. Eventually, dem dey liberated, leaping about with di Getafe fans and Nyom, wey say e want to ensure dem safe before e duck into di dressing room.
Am dey weird, Osasuna coach Alesio Lisci say, and e be too. Im team already celebrate survival after a 99th-minute winner against Sevilla a month earlier; dem never expect to get to clamber clear again, eventually saved by others no be demself. E be dat kind of season.
If di top lack twists, di same five or six all season, di bottom wild, all sudden falls and biblical resurrections. Only Real Oviedo – back in di first division 24 years later, with Santi Cazorla at last making im primera debut for di team e first join aged eight and rejoin on di minimum wage at 38 – go down early, no room for romance or drama.
Despite being di only club with Lamine and Mbappé. Dem score nine home goals all year and get more managers (three) than away wins (two). Yet if Oviedo leave early, di battle to avoid di other two relegation places brutal, crowded, costly and go to di wire.
In a league where good teams suddenly turn bad and bad ones become brilliant, just a tiny gap separate Europe from di abyss most of di season. Nine teams go into di penultimate round of games fighting to avoid di last two places and while Espanyol, Sevilla, Alavés and Valencia pull clear den, there still be five on di final day, dia fates interconnected.
Elche and Girona face each other at Montilivi, all or nothing, a late Thomas Lemar shot off di bar di margin between Girona standing or falling. In di end, four points from dia last eight matches mean di team wey challenge for di title two years ago and dey in di Champions League last season slip into di second division on 41 points – a total wey for deliver salvation in any other season dis decade.
Mallorca go too, bottom of a three-team tie-breaking mini-league involving dem, Osasuna and Levante, wey all end on 42. Dem do so despite having a striker wey score 23 goals, a record no match in 26 seasons. Dis hurt, coach Martín Demichelis say. Football don cruel, Girona manager Míchel Sánchez lament. Dis league really crazy, Elche Eder Sarabia say, but e over now and im team survive.
There just one thing left, di best save until last. But di team wey go from little Rayo to Rayo effing Vallecano, di club so gloriously out of place e good, no fit come back from Germany and dia first ever final with di Conference League trophy. Wey like just about everything to do with Rayo be wrong but somehow right, di banner stretch across di stand at di end in Leipzig expressing everything, di whole point of am all, better than a cup ever fit.
I don know no greater victory than being with you in defeat, e say. Except perhaps winning one of these … Rayo Vallecano Raúl Martín Presa, calling fans drunk, brainless and idle. Im own fans. No talk to me about just avoiding relegation; talk to me about European places, Jesús Martínez say in week eight, having just sack di manager wey bring dem up and, so far, get di team safe. Two days later Oviedo dey in di bottom three. Dem never come out again.
E fit no surprise you to know say e dey at San Mamés; e fit surprise you to know say Athletic no dey play. Instead, Euskadi and Palestine dey. At last di pandemic hoarding pay off. Atlético fans greet dia team with a bog-roll shower so good e turn di Metropolitano into di Monumental and Sevilla follow suit a few days later. So wetin Uefa and La Liga do? Dem fine dem, of course.
Rayo, belting dia way through A Pirate Life – with di CD Yuncos players dem just beat. And worst hangover. Imagine you win di Copa del Rey for di fourth time ever, e kick off at 10pm, take extra-time and penalties, and you no leave di stadium until 2am. So you do; dat day and di next and di next, circling di city from di top deck of a bus, sinking beers and getting sunstroke on board, hundreds of thousands there to go wild with you.
Imagine you stumble in di next afternoon, still in a bit of a state, to prepare a game you just want to get through. Now imagine someone say: lads, e be Getafe. Lionel Messi, silently slipping into di Camp Nou all alone one cold Sunday night in November. Wait, wetin? At di end of dia 3-0 win over Real Mallorca, one Betis supporter desperate to get Cédric Bakambu shirt come bounding down di stand, tumble over di barrier and fall right at di forward feet. Wey be one way to grab a player attention. But e still no get am: Bakambu just stand there looking bemused instead.
Oh for a Sergio Herrera, di Osasuna goalkeeper wey, after victory in Palma, safely gather up di entire team kit and hand-deliver am di stands, no pratfalls needed and no broken bones. Oviedo game at Mestalla put back 24 because of torrential rain, leaving supporters trapped in Valencia and missing travel home, so di club arrange for dem to fly back on di team charter di following day. Wey be lovely. But when di picture go up online, a mum in Asturias no fit help recognising one of di passengers. Apparently, e suppose to dey at im gran house.
When di Celta striker Borja Iglesias subject to homophobic abuse for painting im nails, dia fans and teammates decide dem go do di same, solidarity shown in all sorts of colours and designs. Zaragoza dey go to shit, El Periodico de Aragon say, and sadly dem no be wrong. Dis one. You wait till I older than you! When tiny Inter de Valdemoro from somewhere way, way down in di ninth tier face Getafe in di Copa del Rey, dem dey eight goals down with half an hour to go. So Getafe send on Borja Mayoral, at last given di chance of a lifetime to stick am to big brother Kity in di opposition midfield. Mayoral score two more in an 11-0 battering. Speaking of which … Valdemoro goalkeeper, dat night? Busy.
Robert Navarro, tackled by tinfoil. Granada Jorge Pascual, sent off for calling di linesman fucking moustache-face. And, di referee report read, for pointing to im upper lip to simulate said moustache. Just in case e no get di message, like. Yeah, well done sunshine. Sevilla, rocking di hand-me-down chic. Matías Almeyda, say. Madonna get am. Real Betis scratch and sniff jersey: made of oranges and smells of oranges too. Well, e do before di game, anyway.
Dani Cárdenas, saving a Kike García penalty and di Vallecas nets. All Action Hero Hugo Hard no dey complain about being on di bench. When Barcelona preview Mallorca visit as Robert Lewandowski versus Vedat Muriqi, di Kosovan reply: There few strikers wey compete with Lewy … and I no be one of dem. Di Betis striker Cucho Hernández score against Levante and immediately say sorry to im former club. Wey for be nice but e never play for Levante. E play for Huesca, wey wear di same colours.
Luis Castro fall on im arse on im debut, slipping over as e kick di ball back but no do so again, instead leading a miracle at Levante. President Jokin Aperribay ask ChatGPT if Rino Matarazzo be a good coach for Real Sociedad and e say no; four months later, dem win a historic Copa del Rey. Dem say I get results from not much, always find a way to get points, but dis be like a pencil: you sharpen am and sharpen am, and in di end there no pencil left, Getafe coach José Bordalás warn, but somehow e take dem back into Europe with just a stub and dat rubbery bit.
Di day e present Luis Garcia, Sevilla sporting director grumble e like a funeral in here, yet di coach resurrect dem in six weeks. Some teams get bazookas and tanks, and we dey there fighting with a catapult, Eder Sarabia say, but promoted Elche survive and do am playing nice football too. Den there be Claudio Giráldez and Manuel Pellegrini again. And Hansi Flick of course, champion once more.
But di winner be di Villarreal-bound Iñigo Pérez wey, through di endless troubles, from not having a pitch to play on, a place to train or hot water to wash with, lead Rayo Vallecano to dia highest-ever finish and a first final with rare dignity. E easier to reach success through love, e say, and so e be. With 10 goals in di last 14 games – di only matches e start all season, a fact wey simultaneously enhance wetin e do and diminish im case – di single most significant footballer dis season genuinely fit be di Levante striker Carlos Espí.
But one more point and e fit just get dis far more prestigious award, along with salvation. But e probably get to be Lamine Yamal himself, crowned at 18. I for like to be everything everyone want me to be, e say, wey say a lot, but e still better than anyone else, leading Barcelona escape towards di line.
