2025/26 UCL: Who are the Favorites To Win the UEFA Champions League?

The previous UEFA Champions League campaign was all about Paris Saint-Germain. The French giants knocked off all four Premier League teams at one point or another before thumping Inter Milan by five goals to nil in the most lopsided European final of all time. And they did all of that in their first season without former talisman Kylian Mbappe.

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PSG without Mbappe

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— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) May 31, 2025

Now, however, the dawn of a new campaign has arrived. The qualifying rounds have yielded a slew of epic storylines, with both Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers suffering embarrassing exits, while Kazakh champions Kairat Almaty became their country's first-ever representative on the grandest stage in European football. All that awaits now is for the competition proper to get underway.

The 2026 Champions League final will take place in the stunning Puskás Aréna in Budapest next May. But who are the favorites to hoist the famous 'Big-Eared' trophy high into the Hungarian night sky? Let's take a look.

Paris Saint-Germain

Online sportsbooks make the reigning champions the team to beat, and perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. The popular Bovada online sportsbook currently has Paris Saint-Germain listed as the 5/1 frontrunners for glory, and considering their star-studded cast assembled under Luis Enrique, it's clear why.

For years, the Parisians were considered a team of individual superstars. A squad consisting of a front three of the aforementioned Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Neymar wasn't even able to make it past the round of 16. But in PSG's first campaign without any of those three superstars in their starting lineup, they managed to lift the title for the first time ever.

Now, a new fearsome strikeforce of Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and teenage sensation Désiré Doué took Europe by storm last term, and with Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz feeding them opportunity after opportunity in midfield, they look poised to do the same this season. Chelsea did show, however, that the European champions are more than beatable, as displayed with their 3-0 victory in the FIFA Club World Cup final. That should tell punters to proceed with caution.

Liverpool

Six-time winners Liverpool come in as the 13/2 second favorites, and on recent form, they will take some stopping. The Reds romped to the Premier League title by ten points last season, but they were outclassed on the continental stage by the aforementioned Parisians in the Round of 16. After a summer spending spree unlike anything Anfield has ever seen before, they could well take the fight to PSG this season.

Gone are former attackers Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz, and in their place come Bundesliga exports Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz. Both have hit the ground running so far this season, while Mohamed Salah remains as dangerous as ever, even at the age of 33. If Alexander Isak arrives before the transfer window closes, as he is rumored to, then the Merseysiders will consider themselves as more than a match for any team they may come up against.

Real Madrid

Last season, Real Madrid suffered their earliest Champions League exit in five years as they were dumped out in the quarterfinals by Arsenal. However, you can never rule the record 15-time champions out, thanks to their European pedigree. Their haul of titles is more than double the next best total - AC Milan's seven - with six of those triumphs coming in the last 12 seasons. Now, former central midfielder Xabi Alonso returns as manager in a bid to take Los Blancos back to the summit.

Real have spent big this summer, bringing in former Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold, as well as youngsters Dean Huijsen and Franco Mastantuono. But it's the prolific form of Kylian Mbappe that should put the rest of the continent on notice. The talismanic Frenchman has bagged a mighty 47 goals in 61 games since his arrival last summer, but the time is nigh for him to now claim his first major trophies in the famous Royal White. What better place to start than by winning the UEFA Champions League?

Barcelona

FC Barcelona has been transformed under Hansi Flick over the last year. In the summer of 2024, they were staring down the barrel at an era of Real Madrid dominance, with Los Blancos winning both La Liga and the Champions League before then adding Mbappe to their already stacked arsenal. However, rather than wilting under pressure, the Blaugrana have once again turned to their famed La Masia academy, and boy, have they been rewarded.

Teenage superstar Lamine Yamal is now king in Catalonia, and with fellow academy products Pau Cubarsí, Alejandro Balde, and Fermín López joining the more experienced Pedri and Gavi in the first team, Barcelona have returned to the summit of Spanish football. Last season, they defeated their archrivals four times out of four to romp to a domestic treble. However, continental success eluded them, with Inter Milan upsetting them in the semifinals.

That thrilling defeat to the Nerazzurri ensured that Barcelona's Champions League drought stretched to an 11th year, their longest wait for the trophy since Frank Rijkaard put an end to a 14-year wait back in 2006. Considering their current form and the lethal Yamal, it's no surprise that betting sites make them 7/1 contenders in 2025/26.