La Liga 2024/25 Season Review: Predictable But Not Without Surprises

An insightful review of the 2024/25 LaLiga season. Predictable at the top, but with underdog surprises, major flops, and some tough truths.

INMR

June 10, 2025

3–5 minutes

2024/25, Athletic Club, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Celta Vigo, Deportivo Alaves, Espanyol, Feature, football, Getafe, Girona, Hansi Flick, La Liga, Las Palmas, Leganes, Mallorca, Osasuna, Pejuola Ransome, Rayo Vallecano, Real Betis, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Real Valladolid, Season Review, Sevilla, Spanish Football, sports, Valencia, Villarreal

If you had to sum up this La Liga season in one word, it would be predictable.

The top three? Same faces. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid.

No real disruption.

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Unlike last season, where Girona turned the table upside down with their run for the Champions League ticket.This year settled early.

Title race? Lukewarm. Relegation? As expected. The script wrote itself.

But in a season where surprises were rare and the usual suspects dominated, La Liga still found a way to keep us watching. To keep guessing, in fact.

A deeper look inside, and you see there were a few teams shaking things up.

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Celta Vigo and Rayo Vallecano were the season’s biggest surprises, booking European tickets. Celta to the Europa League and Rayo to the Conference League.

Neither team had touched Europe in years, but they fought their way back. Rayo especially.

Their rise wasn’t loud, but it was intentional. Quiet growth with big results. That’s the kind of underdog energy this league needs.

Leganés, Valladolid, Las Palmas, all three looked like relegation candidates halfway through the season. And unfortunately, they proved everyone right.

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No final-day escape drama. Just steady decline and a quiet exit.

The obvious overachiever? Barcelona. New manager, financial drama, and a squad full of babies. Yet they finished strong.

Finished La Liga Champions for 24/25 season. Not spectacular, but strong. It could’ve easily gone off the rails. . . but it didn’t.

Celta and Rayo again deserve special mentions for their big achievement, Europe. They punched way above their weight and it landed well.

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For the LaLiga underperformers, we start with Real Madrid. They had a healthy lead mid-season, elite talent, and no real excuse.

They were seven points clear in January. Seven. With over half the league done. 17 games to go, perhaps? With the players they had, the title was theirs to throw away.

And they did.

The Real Sociedad team deserves a quiet side-eye too. That squad? That manager? They had what it takes to qualify for Europe at the very least. Instead, they disappeared when it mattered.

And Girona? Yikes. From playing in the Champions League last season to flirting with relegation, this season?

That kind of drop doesn’t just happen. It shouldn’t happen.

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Atlético Madrid, the highest spenders in La Liga last summer. More than every other team combined. And not spent on promising kids but on world-class players.

Stack that on top of an already strong team, a top goalkeeper and a world-class coach, what do you get?

Trophyless.

It’s one thing to fall short. It’s another to fumble a bag that big.

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The La Liga top player of the season, Raphinha. No debate. No long talk from him. Just goals, assists, clutch moments and above all, consistency.

Raphinha didn’t always get the hype, but he kept delivering. Quietly, efficiently, decisively.

From 21 goal contributions last season to a whopping 48 across La Liga and the Champions League this season.

Now, that’s some impact.

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Five La Liga teams will be in the Champions League next season: Barça, Madrid, Atlético, Athletic Club, Villarreal. Three of those teams will be genuine contenders. But. . . there’s a ceiling. One that is getting lower every season.

To put it clearly, LaLiga’s financial rules and match schedules are affecting the teams.

Most, if not all Premier League teams can easily outspend and outbid even the biggest La Liga teams.

And in all sincerity, the financial gap quickly becomes a performance gap, no matter how smart your tactics are.

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The Conference League Final between Chelsea and Real Betis was a prime example of this gap.

The Premier League money vs LaLiga limitations.

You could see it in the squads, in the benches, in the substitutions.

Now, how are they supposed to compete with that low of a ceiling? Even PSG gets their league games postponed so players can rest before big UCL matches.

In Spain? They expect these guys to run marathons twice a week.

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Overall, La Liga this season wasn’t loud. But it was telling.

We saw money misused, momentum gained and lost, and small clubs proving they still matter.

There’s a lot to reflect on and even more to fix. Especially if La Liga wants its best to succeed, not just survive, against Europe’s elites next season.