It began with a coronation. On the opening night of the 2025-26 La Liga campaign, Lamine Yamal, now bearing the fabled No. 10 shirt once worn by Messi and Maradona, scored against Mallorca and mimed placing a crown on his head. The teenager, just turned 18, was signaling a season where he would reign supreme—and Barcelona would prove untouchable. His goal set the tone for a procession that saw the Catalan giants wrap up their third league title in his young career with seven games to spare.
Under Hansi Flick, Barcelona were relentless. They won 11 straight clásicos, including the one at the Bernabéu that mathematically clinched the championship in week 35, a feat not achieved in 94 years. Marcus Rashford delivered the decisive blow in that match, but the campaign was defined by Yamal’s genius and Flick’s steady hand—made all the more poignant when the coach revealed his father had died the morning of the title win, sharing the moment with his 'other family.' Barça’s dominance, however, was not matched in Europe, a fact that hung over their celebrations.
Real Madrid’s season, by contrast, became a study in self-destruction. Early on, they led the table and beat Barcelona 2-1 in October, with Jude Bellingham taunting Yamal’s pre-match talk and Dani Carvajal adding a hand-gesture insult. But the cracks were already there. Vinícius Júnior’s petulant exit after being substituted exposed a fractious squad, and when Xabi Alonso abruptly departed for the Club World Cup, saying his tenure had started 'too soon,' the club lurched into chaos.
Álvaro Arbeloa, Alonso’s replacement, promised connection but brought confusion. He offered players doughnuts and his sofa for therapy, yet results tanked. By the time the spring clásico arrived, Madrid were out of Europe, out of the cup, and spiritually out of contention. The low point came in the dressing room: a violent altercation between Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni ended with Valverde hospitalized for craniofacial trauma, an incident that laid bare the squad’s broken discipline. Kylian Mbappé, meanwhile, was caught posting 'Let’s go Madrid!' on social media when his team were already 2-0 down.
In May, president Florentino Pérez gave a rambling press conference that was widely criticized as incoherent. In a performance likened to Donald Trump, Pérez canceled his subscription to ABC newspaper as a bizarre solution. It captured the sense of a once-mighty power disintegrating in real time.
Beyond the duopoly, La Liga delivered rich subplots. Villarreal, buoyed by new manager Iñigo Pérez—poached from Rayo Vallecano—secured a top-four finish, while Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis claimed the new fifth Champions League spot. Real Sociedad lifted the Copa del Rey in a dramatic shootout, pinning their hopes on a backup goalkeeper and a former ballboy, Álvaro Odriozola, who called it the pinnacle of his life.
Getafe’s story was perhaps the most improbable. Under Pepe Bordalás, they started the season with a threadbare squad and were in the relegation zone at the turn of the year, forcing full-back Allan Nyom to play as an emergency striker. A quartet of unknown January loanees turned the tide, and despite having the league’s lowest possession and most fouls, they clawed their way into a Conference League spot. Their final-day pitch invasion intertwined with the survival saga of Osasuna, whose players had to endure an agonizing wait for other results before learning they were safe—the captain Sergio Herrera calling it 'the worst feeling ever.'
Further down, Real Oviedo ended a 24-year top-flight exile, their return marked by a torrential rainstorm that postponed their match at Mestalla. Meanwhile, Granada’s season took a surreal turn when Jorge Pascual was sent off for simulating a moustache and calling the linesman a 'fucking moustache-face,' an incident that went viral. It all felt emblematic of a league brimming with theater.
As Barcelona paraded through the city with the trophy and a Palestinian flag held by Yamal, the season’s contrasts were stark: unyielding excellence versus spectacular implosion. The 2025-26 campaign won’t be remembered for a tight title race but for the stories it birthed—some glorious, some grotesque, all compelling.
Based on reporting from The Guardian.