Alexia Putellas, Alessia Russo & GOAL's top 20 players of the 2024-25 European women's season - ranked

After some promising runs by both Juventus and Roma in recent years, this season was a tough one in the Champions League for Serie A sides. Juve were, however, at least able to soften the blow of their group-stage exit with a return to the top of the domestic scene. Roma had won back-to-back titles coming in this season, those their first on the women's side, but the previous dominant force has bounced back to clinch a sixth crown, thanks in no small part to the rising talent of Sofia Cantore.

It's not been easy for Cantore to break into the Juve first team. She has had three loan spells in the last six years, and hasn't particularly set the world alight when kept in Turin, scoring just four goals last season. Her hard work has all paid off this term, though, with the 25-year-old producing 11 goals and six assists in just 20 league starts - many of them decisive.

That continued in Juve's last game of the season, when Cantore scored the second goal in a 4-0 thrashing of Roma in the Coppa Italia final to help seal a domestic double.

Many have wondered just when Laura Freigang will leave Eintracht Frankfurt, the club she has represented for the last seven years. Her remarkable goal contributions for a side that isn't among the powerhouses in Germany have seen her linked with every top club on the continent in recent times, be it Barcelona, Lyon, Chelsea or Bayern Munich. After hitting double figures for goals again for the sixth time in seven seasons, that's likely to continue.

But Freigang has long been happy in Frankfurt, leading her to sign a new contract with the club only last summer. She's getting closer to firing them towards something special, too. Her goals played a big role in Eintracht's unexpected title charge this season and, though they did come up short, they will hope she can fire them to an exciting European run next term, after the club secured a top-three finish.

Real Madrid showed flashes of brilliance in this season, taking a 2-0 lead over Arsenal in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final and beating Barcelona for the first time in an impressive 3-1 result - in Catalunya, no less. However, they did ultimately come away with not much to show for it again, finishing second in the league and losing the second leg of that European clash with the Gunners 3-0 to crash out on aggregate.

Still, Madrid have been one of the best teams on the continent this term and they have stars like Linda Caicedo to thank for that. The 20-year-old regularly rises to the big occasion, providing a superb assist to put her team ahead against Barca having also been the one to come closest to ensuring Las Blancas did progress at Arsenal's expense in the Champions League. She ends the season with seven goals and assists in eight UWCL games, having also been directly involved in 11 league goals.

There was a real fear among Bayern Munich fans that they might lose Klara Buhl this summer. The 23-year-old was set to be out of contract in a few weeks' time and there were rumours linking her with top sides, including Barcelona. However, that she has put pen to paper on a new deal in Bavaria will both delight and relieve fans of the German giants, especially after another wonderful season.

No one registered more assists in the Bundesliga this year than Buhl, whose 13 was some five better than anyone else in the division, while a return of seven goals took her up to 20 direct goal contributions in 22 games. A wickedly talented winger who poses a problem for any full-back, she's been integral in Bayern's incredible domestic success this term.

After earning herself a Player of the Year nomination last season in France, Lindsey Heaps has continued in that same vein this term in another strong individual campaign for the Lyon midfielder. No one registered more assists in the Premiere Ligue than the United States international, who landed herself a spot in the division's Team of the Year as a result.

The season may not have ended in the successful fashion Lyon hoped for, with elimination in the Champions League semi-finals massively disappointing given the manner in which it occurred, but Heaps was a big reason why OL got over the line again the league, playing a sublime pass to allow Melchie Dumornay to open the scoring in the title-clinching win over Paris Saint-Germain.

This wasn't an easy year for Chelsea. Normally, names such as Sam Kerr and Lauren James would be most likely to represent them on lists like these, but those are just two of a whole host of stars that have been hampered by injuries this season, leaving the Blues needing to regularly adjust and adapt in order to get over the line in various competitions.

Given that so many of those injuries have occurred in attack, it has placed extra emphasis on their defence to perform - and fortunately, it has. No one in the Women's Super League conceded fewer goals or kept more clean sheets, with the contributions of Nathalie Bjorn a huge factor in those achievements. The Sweden international has a formidable partnership with Millie Bright in the heart of that Chelsea back line, one which helped them secure the WSL title, the League Cup and the FA Cup.

Cristiana Girelli is an icon of Italian women's football, and despite turning 35 just last month, she doesn't appear to be slowing down. The veteran enjoyed her best scoring season since the 2020-21 campaign, netting 19 times to win the Serie A Golden Boot. It was her second-best return of league goals in the last 10 years.

It was fitting, really, that it was Girelli's brace in a 2-0 win over AC Milan in April that sealed Juve's return to the top of the tree, especially given 11 of her 19 strikes came against teams that qualified for Serie A's Championship round. When it came to the big games, she consistently turned up, with a double in the Coppa Italia final just further evidence of that.

By Lyon's standards, this has been a disappointing season. The French giants have ended the campaign with just one trophy, that the league title they have only lost once in 19 years, having suffered an early loss in the cup and a semi-final exit in Europe. However, before that loss to Arsenal, OL were flying and playing some extremely exciting stuff in attack in particular, and Kadidiatou Diani has been a massive part of that.

Scorer of Lyon's second in the title-clinching win over PSG last week, Diani has formed an incredible trident at the top of the XI alongside Melchie Dumornay and Tabitha Chawinga, one which dismantled Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and made light work of what was seen as a 'group of death' before that, winning all six games against Wolfsburg, Roma and Galatasaray.

With 15 goals and 10 assists across domestic and continental competition, Diani looks set to head into this summer's Euros with some exciting momentum.

Lyon and PSG are the two giants of French women's football, with it little surprise that all of the last nine winners of the division's Player of the Year accolade had come from those two clubs - until this month. After a truly special season for third-placed Paris FC, that award went to Clara Mateo this time around.

Scorer of 18 goals in 19 games, the 26-year-old also registered a league-leading total of eight assists to propel the lesser-known club from the capital into a Champions League spot. Last year, they caused chaos there, beating both Arsenal and two-time winners Wolfsburg in qualifying to reach the group stage. If Mateo can carry this form in next season, they could stun some giants again.

After sustaining a brutal ACL injury at the start of the 2023-24 season, it's been a delight to see Caroline Weir back to her best this term. The Scotland international had started that season so well for Real Madrid, only to be cruelly sidelined for almost a year. Fortunately, it hasn't taken long after her return for the magic to also be back.

Weir only started 17 league games this year, but posted 10 goals and eight assists, to go with the six direct goal contributions she managed in the Champions League. The pick of the lot was undoubtedly her match-winning brace against Barcelona, with her scoring two magical late goals to deliver Madrid's first-ever win over the Spanish champions.

It's been a season of real progress for Alessia Russo, whose share of the Women's Super League's Golden Boot is perfect evidence of that. Only Barcelona's Claudia Pina has scored more goals in the Champions League, too, with the England striker more than playing her part to fire Arsenal to the final of the competition for the first time since 2007.

Boasting 20 goals in all competitions, Russo has started to add those fox-in-the-box traits to her game that have elevated her into a more reliable goal-scorer than ever before. Combined with her role in the press, her hard work holding up the ball and how she brings others into a promising move, she has been very impressive all season long.

There was arguably no better defender than Millie Bright in the WSL this term, with her right up there as one of the players of the year. As the end of season awards are showing, she isn't getting the plaudits she fully deserves for that, but anyone who has watched Chelsea regularly this campaign knows how brilliant the England star has been.

It's hard to find the statistics to really characterise her success, too. After all, she's never going to lead any competitions for defensive actions, because she plays for one of the best teams in Europe. But her imperious displays as the Blues' exceptional leader helped them to win a marvellous domestic treble for just the second time in team history.

Had Bayern Munich not been humbled by Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, it's likely that Pernille Harder would've been a serious contender for this year's Ballon d'Or. Widely acknowledged as the player who would've claimed that accolade had the Covid-19 pandemic not stopped it being awarded in 2020, the Denmark international has again been a talismanic presence for the German giants this term, to inspire them to a domestic treble.

Assister of the goal that won Bayern the Super Cup, Harder bagged a magical hat-trick in the German Cup semi-finals to overturn Hoffenheim's 2-0 lead and she ended the league campaign with 14 goals and five assists. For someone who missed a couple of months with a knee injury this season, that's a mightily impressive return.

For all their success, Barcelona have been crying out for an elite No.9 for a few years now. When they signed Ewa Pajor from Wolfsburg last summer, then, it felt like they had almost completed the puzzle from an attacking standpoint, with her return of 42 goals in all competitions only supporting that idea.

Pajor has been one of the best strikers on the planet for several years now, but she rarely got the credit she deserved, at least in part because she was playing in an often-overlooked Bundesliga, as well as the fact that her Poland team had never qualified for a major tournament. That she has fired her national team to this summer's Euros in the same year that she should finally receive some plaudits, having relished the opportunity to play for a high-profile side like Barca, feels fitting.

It was a real coup for Arsenal to secure the services of Mariona Caldentey on a free transfer last summer, after she had played a key role in Barcelona's three Champions League triumphs and Spain's World Cup win. Unsurprisingly, it's a move that has lived up to all the hype that Gunners fans gave it, with Caldentey recently - and deservedly - crowned the WSL Player of the Year.

It's not just in England that she has shone, either. The 29-year-old is only trailing former Barca team-mate Pina in the race for the UWCL Golden Boot, scoring seven times and providing two assists in her 10 appearances this season. In the comeback wins over Real Madrid and Lyon, she was outstanding, playing a major role in Arsenal's surprising run to the final.

As a holding midfielder in a Barcelona team that is full to bursting with attacking talent, it can be easy for Patri Guijarro to slip under the radar. Her contributions to another remarkable season for the Catalans shouldn't be overlooked, though, with her stand-out defensive duties impressive on their own, never mind when you factor in the impressive numbers she's racked up in attack despite playing a more reserved role.

Guijarro has provided 16 assists across all competitions this term, as well as bagging 10 goals. Hitting double figures in both columns is something that so many forwards aim to do each season, so for a defensive midfielder to do it says a lot about her immense all-round quality, which has been crucial in putting Barca within touching distance of another historic quadruple.

Before Lyon's elimination in the Champions League semi-finals, Melchie Dumornay felt like a genuine front-runner for the Ballon d'Or. There were very few players in Europe one could point to as being in better form this season than the Haiti international, whose performances across the board have been exceptional.

Sadly, OL could not keep hold of the slender advantage Dumornay's goal in the first leg of their European semi-final against Arsenal gave them, succumbing to a shocking 4-1 defeat at home just a week later to crash out of the competition. But that was a defensive disaster-class that had little to do with Dumornay, who scored Lyon's consolation. That is one of 22 she's managed this term, 16 of which came in the league, including one in the final game against PSG to deliver another triumph for OL.

Winner of the last two Ballons d'Or, Aitana Bonmati might not have quite hit the heights of the two seasons that returned that individual glory, but she's still been an outstanding member of this brilliant Barcelona team. Moreover, that says more about the high standards she has set for herself. She might not have been the consensus best player in the world for a third year in a row, but she's still been right up there as one of the best.

As well as racking up 18 goals and 14 assists, Bonmati has just generally stood up and made a real impact when it comes to the biggest games. Her performances in the two legs of Barca's Champions League semi-final win over Chelsea were sublime, showcasing her ability to dictate play in two of the most important matches of her team's season, to put them into a sixth European final in seven years.

After being many people's pick for the Ballon d'Or last year, Caroline Graham Hansen is right back in the mix for it again this year after continuing her incredible form from last season into this one. Yet another Barcelona star in double figures for goals and assists, that she has got there is made all the more impressive by a couple of spells on the sidelines that have threatened to stop her momentum. But it'll take something more than that to stop someone who has come back from plenty of difficult setbacks in her career.

Having come to the fore at Wolfsburg, Graham Hansen has gone to new levels at Barcelona to firmly establish herself as one of the best wingers in the world - if not the best winger in the world - on a wonderfully consistent basis. That has continued in spades this term, with her tricky play out wide a big reason for Barca's relentless success.

Before Bonmati won her back-to-back Ballons d'Or, Alexia Putellas achieved that feat herself with two remarkable campaigns, only for a devastating ACL injury to come on the eve of the 2022 European Championships. There have been some difficult times since, with Putellas needing to complete that gruelling rehab and then being thrown some more injury obstacles along the way. This year, though, it feels like she is very much back to her best.

Only Pajor has scored more goals in Liga F and no one has racked up more assists, with Putellas firmly into double figures for both. She's made telling contributions in Europe, too, with her three assists across the two legs of the Chelsea semi-final a perfect example. There is still a summer of major international tournaments to come, but a third Ballon d'Or could well be waiting in the wings for Putellas this autumn.