Another Bundesliga is behind us, and after last year‘s surprise winner Bayer Leverkusen, things are back to ‘normal‘ as Bayern Munich was crowned champions two rounds before the end of the season. What‘s more impressive is that they did it with a new coach who was not their first choice but still managed to do better than Bayer, who kept most of the team along with Xabi Alonso. After many seasons, Leipzig failed to qualify for the Champions League while Borussia managed to do it in the last round. Who fell short? Who deserved more? Who are the winners, and who are the losers of the season in Germany? Which players and managers stepped up, and which disappointed? All the answers are below.Bayern Munich have missed only ONE Bundesliga title in the past decade 😅🔴 pic.twitter.com/WQZVyQbzVe— OneFootball (@OneFootball) May 17, 2025 TITLE RACEJust like last season, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen were two major contenders and there was nobody else coming even close. The third placed Frankfurt finished with nine points behind Leverkusen, who failed to repeat their magic from last year, when they miraculously won the title without a single defeat. They had few of them this year (only three), but had a vast number of draws (12) which eventually cost them the title repeat. Not to mention that they failed to defeat Bayern this season, who became champions relatively easy. The Bavarians had only two defeats and the squad responded well to the new coach Vincent Kompany. With a Bundesliga title, Bayern managed one of his three goals: title, the cup and the Champions League. A defeat in the quarterfinals from Inter Milan was a failure, but the board of directors didn‘t made a lot of fuss, considering that the team had a lot of injuries at the back for at the time. In the end, the points difference between Bayern and Bayer was a big high – 13 points.Finally – Harry Kane has won a trophy!BATTLE FOR EUROPEAN SPOTSTwo-horse battle for the title left all other clubs in a chase for the remaining two Champions League spots. Due to German clubs‘ success a year ago, when they were awarded with five spots, now they were given four and Frankfurt, Dortmund, Freiburg, Leipzig and Stuttgart were chasing third and fourth place. In recent seasons, Dortmund and Leipzig hold those spots almost exclusively, but both teams had terrible seasons, allowing Frankfurt to emerge with a great one. Dino Toppmoller managed the players brilliantly and won the third spot with ease. Contrary to Eintracht, Borussia and Leipzig had terrible time (see the column: Losers) and while Dortmund managed to get the last spot in the last round, Leipzig failed to do so and will be without the Champions League after a long time. The failure of these clubs allowed other unlikely teams to step up, and almost until the last round, Freiburg and Mainz were in contention for the Champions League place. They failed, and will represent Germany in the Europa and Conference League.RELEGATION FIGHTThis season, for the third time in a row, Bochum was among the candidates for relegation. ‘Die Blauen‘ came to the elite rang in 2021 and only in the first season did they managed a ‘normal‘ campaign and finished 13th. The next three seasons they were struggling all season but narrowly escaped the second league. Last season they even played in the promotion playoffs and managed to stay up, but this year they were finally doomed. During the season, clubs who were promoted from Bundesliga 2 were also in the mix, and one of them (St. Pauli) managed to stay in the first division, but only near the end of the season. Kiel was doomed from the beginning and they are not coming back. Heidenheim played in the promotion/relegation playoff in order to stay in Bundesliga. During the season, clubs like Hoffenheim and Union Berlin were in the relegation fight, but chance of coaches were successful and they pulled them out of the relegation zone.BIGGEST WINNERS32 – For the first time in 32 years, Eintracht Frankfurt have finished a Bundesliga season in the top four (1992-93: also third) and thus in 2025-26 will participate in the Champions League for the second time. Peak. pic.twitter.com/AUxTfoKU8d— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) May 17, 2025 Eintracht FrankfurtThe Europa League winners in 2022 ended the season in third place easily, mainly because Leipzig and Dortmund had terrible seasons. But it would be unfair not to give credit to the coach Dino Toppmoller and the sporting sector who had a number of consecutive transfer windows in which they found great players for little amounts and created a strong team who played mainly in Europa League, but now will try their luck in UEFA‘s elite competition. Their season was even better if we count in the fact that they lost their top striker Omar Marmoush in January (left to Manchester City for 80 million euros). They still continued strong with PSG flop Hugo Ekitike leading the line and now he is the first one to get a big-money transfer in June.FreiburgWhat a great achievement for this small club from the Black Forest. They repeated the same success from two years ago but this was done with almost no signings this year and with a new boss (Julian Schuster), who took over from legendary Christian Streich, the longest Bundesliga manager (12 years) before he retired in 2024. The result in Schuster‘s maiden season was excellent, and in fact, Freiburg were 90 minutes away from Champions League football, but Dortmund‘s win prevented them from making a sensation. To be fair though, for this club and it‘s financial limitations, Europa League is just the right place.He has finally won it! Kane lifts Bundesliga trophyHarry KaneAfter 16 years of senior football, Harry Kane finally won his first-ever trophy! His career in Tottenham was full of defeats and he decided to join the 11 consecutive champions of Germany at the time. But in a fascinating turn of events, Bayern Munich lost the title in 2024 and Kane was again the subject of fun. This season however, he gave his best as usual but the coach was changed and he brought stability. The team played good and the English captain finally won the title. The irony is that his former team Tottenham did the same just as he left, as the Spurs won the Europa League on Wednesday.Niko KovačBorussia Dortmund – complete losers. Niko Kovač – a winner (for now). After some terrible decisions, the German giants found themselves in 11th position when they sacked Nuri Sahin at the end of January with only seven wins. The Croat was the only coach who wanted to take the job before the end of the season, but they were forced to give him a deal until 2026. He is famous for his tough approach and he did it. They finished fourth in the last game of the season. So far Kovač is the winner. But the history tells another story as well. His last three jobs? Bayern Munich (sacked after only one season), Monaco (‘departure‘ after his second season), Wolfsburg (sacked in his second season). In all those situations, his man-management skills were the problem. We will see if he learned the lesson from all those sacks.Next seasonVincent Kompany: current Bayern coachErik ten Hag (Leverkusen): former Bayern U23 coachDino Toppmöller (Eintracht Frankfurt): former Bayern assistantNiko Kovač (Borussia Dortmund): former Bayern coachSebastian Hoeneß (VfB Stuttgart): former Bayern U23 coachSandro… pic.twitter.com/G1Y4XkUNMY— Victor Catalina (@vcatalina96) May 26, 2025 Vincent Kompany“Burnley got relegated that season on 35 points. We’ve gone to Kompany. 24 points, I think they got. It’s been 127million and he got the Bayern job. Come on, I don’t know how that works. I wish I was doing it. I wish I’d have left the club 127million in debt and then got the Bayern job“ said former Burnley boss Sean Dyche recently. He was not the only one, though. The football world was stunned when the European giants announced that Vincent Kompany, who just got relegated with Burnley will take charge. To make things worse, he was Bayern‘s seventh choice since more serious managers declined the offer due to various reasons (Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann, Ralf Rangnick, Oliver Glasner, Thomas Tuchel, Roger Schmidt). But he proved to be a very good manager, especially in the man management department, which Thomas Tuchel obviously failed. He won the title back with ease and even the almighty Uli Hoeness is pleased.“It’s a difference like day and night compared to before. He is communicative and cares about his players. But we didn’t know that before. That’s why we called Pep Guardiola and asked him for advice. He just told us that we can take him blindly, he can do it” said the Bayern‘s honorary president.’We failed’ – RB Leipzig director’s brutal verdict as club suffer worst Bundesliga finish and miss out on EuropeRB Leipzig’s sporting director, Marcel Schafer, didn’t mince his words following the season’s conclusion: “There are no new insights. It was a disappointing season… pic.twitter.com/98prs7OmN5— SleeperFootballNews (@SleeperFootNews) May 19, 2025 BIGGEST LOSERSRB LeipzigSince the mighty Red Bull corporation took over Leipzig, they had only two goals – to resell players and to play the Champions League football. If a trophy comes along the way, good, if now, doesn‘t matter. They had no problem giving their best players (and coaches) to their rivals in the league Bayern Munich. Money was the only this they looked at. For the first time since 2018, Leipzig will not play in UEFA‘s top competition. Coach Marco Rose stuck to his methods for too long, refused internal and external advice and was dismissed at the end of March. Being known for not making hasty decisions, Leipzig board now hang on to Rose for too long so interim manager Zsolt Low couldn‘t do much in just a month and a half. The club was even worse in the Champions League (seven defeats in eight games) and will have to reorganize now, after they choose their new manager.The Yellow Wall held strong — Borussia is heading to the Champions League, followed by EintrachtBorussia DortmundIn normal circumstances, finishing fourth certainly cannot be labeled as ‘biggest loser‘ but considering we are talking about the second biggest club in Germany, this is a big failure. Their biggest achievement in the 11 years of Bayern‘s rule was the 2022/23 season, when they needed a home win to become champions and they bottled it. Yes, they did manage a surprise Champions League final the next year, but it was visible to all that the team played worse last season. And it was a meltdown in 2025, which was stopped by Niko Kovač. The main reason was the executive board and their decisions. New CEO Lars Ricken and his advisors gave the unexperienced Nuri Sahin the job and he failed miserably. The transfer window was not successful which they found out during the season, when their new players failed to deliver. The bosses let the internal dispute, which was primarily caused by former Arsenal director Sven Mislintat drag on for far too long and sacked him in February. The contract extension for sporting director Sebastian Kehl also dragged on for months. Now they must have a perfect off-season or else.WolfsburgThis is one of only two clubs in Bundesliga who are not owned by the fans and are sponsored by moto-giants Wolkswagen, so getting the money is not a problem. Yet, unlike Bayer Leverkusen (who is this other club owned by a company), Wolfsburg cannot be proud of their last season, or seasons to be exact, and they have easily fallen into the ‘losers‘ category. The recent FA Cup winner with Crystal Palace Oliver Glasner was the last one managed a good season in Wolfsburg, when the brought them into the Champions League in 2021. He left due to poor relationship with the sporting sector and Wolfsburg are in a free fall since. They changed four coaches in the last four seasons and are looking for a fifth now. After finishing fourth with Glasner, their next four placements were 12th, 8th, 12th and 11th place.##NAJAVA_MECA_8952852##HoffenheimThis club has been flirting with relegation since the start of the season. Eventually, they finished 15th on the last day of Bundesliga and this is their worst result since 2012/13, when they were 16th. To make things worse, they spent 76 million euros on reinforcements in June 2024 in order not to get into this situation, but they eventually did. They sacked Pellegrino Matarazzo (who took over after another relegation battle) in November 2024 but Christian Ilzer was not the solution. After spending so much money, they nearly survived and their best players were aiging keeper Oliver Baumann (34) and striker Andrej Kramaric (33).SOMEWHERE IN BETWEENHeidenheimWhat a pity for this club….In every season in every league there is a small club which beat the odds and finds himself with the ‘big boys‘ and Heidenheim is one of those teams. With a population of only 50.000, this town managed to produce a Bundseliga team which entered the German elite in 2023 and finished ninth in its first season. Manager Frank Schmidt has most of the credit for this and he has been the coach in Hidenheim since 2007! But the fantastic achievement from last season was the one thing which might ‘destroy‘ them this season. Considering the excellent result of German clubs in UEFA competitions, they were allocated the extra place in the Champions League at the start of 2024 season, and Heidenheim suddenly qualified for the Conference League. For such a small club with limited budget who sold their best striker to Borussia Monchengladbach (Tim Kleindienst), this was too much as too many games and injuries left them to fight with relegation. They are now 90 minutes away from doom as they played only 2-2 with Elvesberg in the first promotion/relegation game, but managed to win in the second one, as the goal in the 95th minute kept them in Bundesliga for at least another season.🚨🇩🇪 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 | Heidenheim will STAY in the Bundesliga! They won their play-off match against Elversberg. ✅Frank Schmidt has been Heidenheim’s manager for 18 YEARS — he took them from the 5th division all the way to the Bundesliga. The journey continues! 👏 pic.twitter.com/sbUJjruBf0— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) May 26, 2025 Jonathan BurkardtThe only reason why Burkardt found himself here is because he wasn‘t called into the German national team after a fantastic season, and we think he is also not considering himself a total winner because of it. Why Julian Nagelsmann didn‘t invite the youngster is only for him to explain. The Mainz striker is the top German scorer in the Bundesliga with 18 goals this season and has contributed significantly to the club‘s advancement to the Conference League, scoring one goal in each of his last three matches. And his omission is even stranger if we consider that Tim Kleindienst is injured and will be absent for months. Burkardt is on the radar of many clubs, mostly Premier League ones, but Frankfurt is also interested. His current value is around 30 million euros, which is certainly a small amount for English clubs.
