La Liga 2024/2025

The 2024 – 2025 La Liga season will begin on 15th August with a match between Athletic Bilbao and Getafe.

It is the 94th edition of the competition and will run until 26th May 2025.

Real Madrid are the defending champions, having won it for the 36th time in their history last season.

And they remain the team to beat, having added Kylian Mbappé and the latest Brazilian wonderkid, Endrick, to their ranks since the last campaign.

The usual suspects, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, can expect to be among their closest challengers again, but last season's surprise team, Girona, may struggle to replicate their success because they have to cope with the additional demands of Champions League football for the first time in their history.

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Real Madrid & Mbappé

Real Madrid not only won the League last season but also triumphed in the Champions League for a record 15th time. Few would bet against them going close in both competitions again. 

Although they have not been as active in the transfer market as some of their rivals, the arrival of Mbappé and Endrick strengthens their squad, while making Loselu's loan move permanent adds to their squad depth.

Toni Kross has retired, and Luke Modrić can no longer play 90 minutes, but they are well covered in midfield by Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, and Federico Valverde.

They have been further boosted by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois's return to full fitness after injuries badly disrupted him last season.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that manager Carlo Ancelotti faces is managing the resources at his disposal and finding ways to integrate the new arrivals into his team. It is a nice problem to have.

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Barcelona & Robert Lewandowski

Following Barcelona in recent years has become like watching a soap opera, and last season was no exception. The narrative was dominated by the future of manager Xavi. In January, he announced he was leaving the club, deeming the job impossible, but it was only for it to be confirmed he was staying at the start of May.

But then, as far as the Barcelona board was concerned, he spoke out of turn one time too many, and they decided to move on from their former player, turning instead to the German Hansi Flick, a man with a point to prove. He had won the treble with Bayern Munich, but his German national team manager spell proved significantly less successful.

He comes into a club still massively in debt, which will be forced to play its home matches at the Olympic Stadium while the redevelopment of the Camp Nou continues.

That also means that there is not the money for some of the lavish transfers of the past. However, they have spent ₤50 million to buy back Euro winner Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig, who came through their famous La Masia academy system but had to move to Croatia to get his break in first-team football.

Whilst the team remains heavily dependent on a now-aging Robert Lewandowski for their goals, they do have at Flick's disposal a crop of supremely talented young players like Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Pau Cubarsi, and Gabi, who missed the Euros through injury but should return sometime.

Their combined talents should enable them to mount a sustained title challenge.

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Atlético Madrid & Balanced Squad

Diego Simeone is the highest-paid club manager in the world. Still, his tenure in charge of Atlético Madrid, the club he has led since 2011, came under question after they could only finish fourth last season, finishing 19 points behind neighbors Real.

To close that gap, Atlético has invested heavily in the transfer market. Euro-winning Spanish defender Robin Le Normand has been signed from Real Sociedad, whilst striker Alexander Sørloth has arrived from Villareal. They are also in the process of signing Julián Álvarez from Manchester City and Conor Gallagher from Chelsea.

To make way for these new arrivals, they have dispensed with the likes of Alvaro Morata and Memphis Depay. Defender Çağlar Söyüncü has returned to Turkey and will now play under Jose Mourinho at Fenerbahçe.

The squad now looks better balanced to cope with the demands of the season and the Champions League and should finish closer to the top than last season.

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Girona & Manager Míchel

Girona, who are part-owned by Pep Guardiola's brother, Pere, and are part of the City group of football clubs, were the surprise package last season and led the League at one stage before squad depth and fatigue became an issue. Barcelona overtook them in the end. They had to settle for second, but, for their highly popular manager Míchel, this was still an immense achievement for a team whose home stadium has less than 15,000 capacity.

One downside of that success is that Girona players have been in demand this summer. They have already lost Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbyk, the top scorer in La Liga, who was sold to Roma, and midfielder Aleix García, who has moved to the Bundesliga and Bayer Leverkusen.

They also have the added demand of playing the Champions League for the first time in their history, placing additional burdens on an already thin squad.

That means that a top-half finish might be the summit of their ambitions this time.

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Sevilla & Antonio Barrios

One team that will be hoping for a much better campaign this time around is Sevilla. Seven-time winners of the Europa League, the 2023 -2024 season was a huge disappointment for them. They went through three different managers and endured a flirt with relegation before eventually, Antonio Barrios is the latest man entrusted with leading the side, and with no distraction from European football of any kind this season, he will be expected to help them challenge to regain their status as the best of the rest.

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Real Sociedad & Athletic Bilbao

Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao are among the other teams contending for European places, but their progress might depend on whether they can keep hold of some of their best players before the transfer window closes.

Sociedad, who have already lost Le Normand to Atlético, are having to cope with rumors linking their midfield duo of Martin Zubímendi and Mikel Merino with moves to the Premier League, with Liverpool and Arsenal interested in the pair. Meanwhile, every top European club wanted to buy Nico Williams from Athletic after his performances for Spain at the Euros.

Should he leave, the club will reinvest the money locally, as it sticks firmly to its policy of only recruiting players born in the Basque region of Spain.

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The relegation picture

As always, getting promoted to La Liga is only half the challenge; staying up the next season is just as difficult, if not more so.

That means that Valladolid, Leganés, and Espanyol, which came up at the expense of Cádiz, Almeria, and Granada, can all expect to spend most of the campaign in the bottom reaches of the table.

Espanyol might be the best equipped of the three to keep their head above water, and their fans will look forward to the resumption of their fierce city rivalry with Barcelona, which was put on temporary hold whilst they were in the second tier.

Mallorca and Rayo Vallecano can also expect to struggle, and Celta Vigo will not want to rely on a late burst of form to get them out of trouble again.

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