Mbappe Snubbed From UEFA Champions League Team of the Season Despite Finishing as Top Scorer With 15 Goals

Kylian Mbappe has been left out of the official 2025/26 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season, a decision that has drawn widespread attention given that the Frenchman finished the campaign as the competition’s outright top scorer with 15 goals in 11 appearances.

The UEFA Technical Observer Group named Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembélé and Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane as the two forwards in the selection, bypassing Mbappe entirely. The full XI features five PSG players — Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Marquinhos, and Nuno Mendes — reflecting the French club’s dominance as newly crowned champions. Losing finalists Arsenal contributed three selections in David Raya, Gabriel Magalhães, and Declan Rice, while Bayern Munich were represented by Kane and Michael Olise. Atlético Madrid’s Marcos Llorente completed the eleven.

A key structural factor behind Mbappe’s exclusion is the eligibility criteria applied to the Team of the Season, which is restricted to players who featured in the semifinal stage and beyond. Real Madrid were eliminated at the quarterfinal stage, suffering a 6-4 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich, which ruled Mbappe out of contention regardless of his individual output.

Nevertheless, the scale of his personal contribution remains notable. Mbappe’s tally of 15 goals placed him one ahead of Kane, who scored 14 in the tournament, securing the scoring title for the Real Madrid forward despite his club’s early exit. The gap between individual performance and collective progression has rarely been so stark in recent Champions League history.

The omission adds another difficult dimension to Mbappe’s time at the Santiago Bernabéu. Since joining Real Madrid from PSG, the France captain has gone two consecutive seasons without winning a major club honour. The contrast with his former club is pointed: PSG have now claimed back-to-back Champions League titles, their most recent coming after defeating Arsenal on penalties in the final held in Budapest.

Mbappe departed PSG ahead of the 2024/25 season, joining Real Madrid in a high-profile transfer that signalled a shift in the club’s project. The Champions League titles PSG have secured in the two seasons since his departure have intensified scrutiny of that move, particularly as his current club have fallen short of silverware in the same period.

Kane, whose inclusion over Mbappe was the most debated aspect of the selection, contributed 14 goals as Bayern Munich reached the final stages of the competition. Dembélé, meanwhile, was central to PSG’s title-winning campaign, which culminated in their penalty shootout victory over Arsenal in Budapest.

With the 2025/26 Champions League season now concluded, attention turns to how both Real Madrid and Mbappe respond in the next campaign, with the Frenchman likely to remain one of the competition’s most watched individuals despite another season ending without silverware.