Top-scoring Kylian Mbappe snubbed from Champions League best XI

Kylian Mbappé has been shockingly omitted from the official 2025/26 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season, despite finishing the campaign as the competition's outright top goalscorer. 

The UEFA Technical Observer Group controversially excluded the Real Madrid superstar from the team of the competition, instead selecting Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane and Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembélé to spearhead the attack.

The lineup was dominated by newly crowned champions PSG, who boasted a staggering five representatives (Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Marquinhos, and Nuno Mendes). 

Losing finalists Arsenal secured three spots (David Raya, Gabriel Magalhães, and Declan Rice), Bayern Munich claimed two (Kane and Michael Olise), while Atlético Madrid’s Marcos Llorente rounded out the squad. 

The team of the season consists entirely of players who participated in the semi-final onwards, complicating Mbappe's chances, whose Los Blancos were unceremoniously eliminated in the quarterfinals following a 6-4 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich. 

Despite the relatively early exit, Mbappé's individual output was devastating; he registered 15 goals across just 11 matches, successfully edging out Kane (14 goals) to secure the scoring title. 

However, his phenomenal personal statistics only serve to highlight a deeply bitter irony surrounding his move to the Spanish capital.

While the Les Bleus captain has now frustratingly endured two consecutive campaigns without securing a single piece of major club silverware at the Santiago Bernabéu, the Paris Saint-Germain sporting project he abandoned has successfully captured back-to-back Champions League titles, after recently defeating Arsenal on penalties in Budapest.