The dust may not have settled on Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory, but as everyone knows, soccer does not take a break. The FIBA Club World Cup kicks off in just a few weeks and International soccer has already concluded with Portugal winning Nations League. With that being said, it’s never too early to look at some potential contenders to lift the Champions League trophy next June.
Liverpool
Despite expectations being somewhat low for Arne Slot’s first season in charge, Liverpool stormed to their second title in 35 years. During their impressive season, The Reds left fans surprised at their Round of 16 exit to PSG. At the time, the French club weren’t considered a heavy favorite but the quality was obviously there. Liverpool took the eventual champions to a penalty shootout before going on to win the Premier League title in April.
Now Slot’s side have started off the summer with a bang, already replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold with high-flying wing back Jermaine Frimpong as well as chasing his former teammate Florian Wirtz and Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez. Liverpool also exited the FA Cup early with a shock defeat to Plymouth Argyle, so perhaps a deeper squad and one more suited to what Slot wants is what Liverpool need to compete on multiple fronts
Paris Saint-Germain
It may sound harsh to say that PSG won the Champions League by catching everybody off-guard, but their approach to this season was so different than past ones, that many teams truly didn’t see them coming. In the past decade, the Champions League has been dominated by experience. Real Madrid, Juventus, and Atlético Madrid would continuously appear in finals while the fresh faces of AS Monaco and Borussia Dortmund would be found out and never make deep runs in back-to-back years.
PSG built on their semi-final exit last year by leaning into their youth and running rings around their opponents, en route to their first ever title, one even they didn’t plan for. After beating PSG in the 2020 final, Bayern director told PSG owner Nasser Al-Khelafi ‘'You'll win the Champions League when you don't plan for it," he revealed to BeIN. With that being said, PSG are obvious candidates to repeat their European Glory, but being the target of all their competitors may mean they aren’t favorites in 2026.
Barcelona
Barcelona are built a lot like the PSG team that just won it all last week. Led by a teenage wonder kid and an attacking compatriot in their prime, as well as a midfield full of energy and grit not often seen at a young age. Most importantly, they both have managers that have done it before. Hansi Flick won the Champions League with Bayern in 2020 and after an up and down spell with the German National Team, came to Barcelona and hit the ground running.
The Blaugrana won La Liga with an incredible 102 goals for and the Copa Del Rey, while losing to Inter Milan in the Champions League final. There’s always odd stories about Barcelona’s finances in the summer transfer window, but even if they don’t make any signings, their young squad (Which is no longer a bad thing in Europe) is ready to build on such a dramatic first season under Flick and win the Champions League for the first time since 2015.
Arsenal
For year seven of Mikel Arteta’s management, they may have a better chance of securing a major honor in Europe, rather than finishing first in the league. For a few reasons, Arsenal always seem to fizzle out towards the end and come short of winning their first Premier League title in 20 years. But despite this, Arteta’s side have always managed to do well in Europe.
Knocking out defending champions Real Madrid and going toe-to-toe with PSG and Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern last year, Arsenal have shown they have the quality to square up with the European giants. Their squad is built for it as well, their defense has once again proven stalwart, and their success on set pieces is a key quality a team needs in a two-legged tie. There are still some glaring goal scoring issues, but if they’re fixed in the transfer window, the Gunners may be looking at their best chance to secure Champions League glory for the first time in their history.
Real Madrid
Honestly, there isn’t much here other than Kylian Mbappe and the fact a lot of this squad has done it before. However, a new manager without any European success or experiencing managing big names poses a lot of question marks. If Mbappe builds on an exceptional 2025 and the likes of Vinicius Jr., Rodrygo, and Bellingham return to form, there will be enough reasons to still consider the 15-time Champions League winners a serious contender.
Champions League contenders with too many questions:
Manchester City: Whenever City had been faced with a crisis in the past the answer would always be ‘They have Pep Guardiola’. If another one arose not long after, the answer would be ‘They have Kevin De Bruyne’. Now, one of them is gone and while Guardiola is undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time, it feels like his incredible run at City is reaching the end. With a confusing blend of the past generation and young players that Guardiola doesn’t even seem to be keen on, the irrepressible power of Manchester City doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did.
Bayern Munich: While Vincent Kompany isn’t on the hot seat at Bayern just yet, the decision the club made to not rebuild the squad with the young manager looks even more confusing today. Now they’re running it back with an old squad that didn’t look like a serious contender at any point last season, and there’s no reason to believe they’ll be one this year.
Napoli: This one may be on the more positive side than the previous two. The biggest red flag around Antonio Conte (and there are many) is his ability to bring a team far in Europe. But this season Conte showed his ability to adapt despite his well-known stubborn nature, shifting to a 4-3-3 formation not often used in his career. If this is the year for Conte, he can bring his Napoli team that caught everybody by surprise en route to a Serie A title to the door of Europe’s elite with an approach the world has never seen before from him.