With the college and professional football seasons kicking off, baseball approaching the postseason, and the NBA and NHL entering preseason soon, one sport in America often goes unnoticed: soccer.
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is Europe’s premier soccer competition, where the best teams from each country compete for the Champions League title. While most soccer leagues started in mid-August (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A), we witnessed the Champions League’s return last week. There is no greater accomplishment for a team than winning the Champions League trophy, a lasting mark of an incredible season.
The UCL began in 1955 when it was introduced as the European Champions Club’s Cup. At its inception, it was a knockout tournament between the champions of the various domestic European leagues. Several decades later in 1991, a round-robin stage (a format in which each team plays every other team an equal number of times) was added to the competition. The following year, the tournament was officially rebranded to the UEFA Champions League. In 1997, non-league winners were allowed to join, which gave rise to the format we are most familiar with today.
Historically, this tournament has been Real Madrid’s (ESP) event. They have won the title 15 times since 1955. In second place is AC Milan (ITA) with a mere seven. To put Real Madrid’s success into context, since the 2013-2014 season, Real Madrid has won the title six times alone; this is one less than all of AC Milan’s titles, and tied for second place. Liverpool (ENG) and Bayern Munich (GER) round out the most dominant teams in Champions League history with six titles apiece, both having won the tournament most recently in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Whether it was to appease the fans who wanted more games or an attempt to make more profit, the Champions League now boasts many more matches and has ditched the old format of a four-team round-robin. Now, each team plays eight teams across four different groupings and gets placed into a table of all 32 teams. The top eight automatically qualify for the round of 16, the next 16 battle for the remaining eight playoff spots in a playoff, and the bottom eight teams get eliminated from the competition.
Players on teams now competing in four different competitions (two domestic cups, their league, and the Champions League) have spoken up about a higher frequency in matches A month ago, Liverpool’s star goalie Alisson Becker commented that the new format has “too many matches” in a press conference. Just earlier last week, Manchester City’s star midfielder Rodri, one of the premier midfielders in the world with the second-highest betting odds for the Ballon d’Or, also spoke up last week about playing too many games and noted that some players are close to going on strike. Two days later, he suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
With these new developments in mind, this season in the Champions League is going to be one we have never seen before. The new format could provide some shocking upsets along with the increased frequency in matches making it more exciting for the fans. It could also prove to be a lot less predictable with the likely increase in injuries throughout the course of the season. To that, below are our picks to win the UCL in 2025:
Real Madrid (+330): Once again, Real Madrid are the favorites to lift the UCL trophy at the end of the season, and rightfully so. Not only did they top La Liga by an impressive ten points last season, but they are also coming off the back of their 15th successful Champions League campaign. To date, they have won the tournament eight more times than the next most successful team. They looked poised for success again after adding one of the world’s bests, Kylian Mbappe, to an already stacked squad.
Arsenal (+850): In the 2023-24 Season, Arsenal came up short when it mattered most. They challenged Manchester City all the way until the final day of the Premier League season, ultimately losing by two points. In the Champions League they fared similarly. However, after they managed to pull ahead against the Etihad until the 90+8 minute tie last weekend, we think that Arsenal is finally a legitimate title contender. They have looked great to start out the Premier League season, and without injuries could be one of the best teams in world football.
Liverpool (+1100): We know that this Liverpool team is in the middle of a massive rebuild, but we at the Indy Sportsbook think that the team is a lot farther along than everyone would have thought. Yes, they did lose to Nottingham Forest at home, in notably one of their worst losses in recent memory; however, they bashed Manchester United at home 3-0 in a match that they were controlling the whole 90 minutes, and beat AC Milan 3-1 at the San Siro. For these odds, we think it’s foolish not to sprinkle a little on the team that has been to three finals in the last five years.
Now, one might ask why not include the (debatably) best team in the world: Manchester City. We kept them out for two reasons. First, they do not have great odds at +275, and we think the value is not there. Second, they just lost their best player, Rodri, to a season-long injury and will therefore not be as good. This will be Pep Guardiola’s (Manchester City’s manager) biggest test as a Manchester City manager.
Only time will tell who will be the winner of the 2025 UCL. But for everyone’s sake, let’s hope and pray Real Madrid does not win another title this season.
Andrew Christie ’26 (andrewchristie@college.harvard.edu) writes Sports for the Independent.Luke Wagner ’26 (lukewagner@college.harvard.edu) has a career six G/A in four IM games, yet his ex-roommate refuses to let him play club.