This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/AnnieIWillKnow on 2025-08-16 09:15:46+00:00.
The 2025/26 /r/soccer Predictions Survey - the results!
Thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Predictions Survey! We almost doubled last season’s sample size, and given that these results are an even better barometer of the “but /r/soccer told me!!” consensus.
Read on for a breakdown of the results - janky pie charts and all - which will provide a delightful touchstone next summer by which to individually and collectively measure our true expertise on the game. (I will post a reminder of the results, after 2025/26 comes to a close, so you’re not getting away with these dodgy takes).
The full results can be viewed in a single Imgur album, here
… and for those who still want to leave a “Mark My Words” take, you can view the original thread here
The results
There were a total of 599 participants - which although only a small minority of the /r/soccer userbase, is a good enough sample size to draw some conclusions.
Part 1 - the biggest prizes
The Men’s World Cup
The Eurosnobs of /r/soccer backed the current European Champions, Spain, to follow up with a World Cup win - or 35.4% did, anyway. The Western hemisphere bias continued with England (20%), France (11.4%) and Portugal (9.9%) the next favourites - and only 6% predicting current champions Argentina to defend their crown.
The Men’s AFCON
Morocco seem a smart pick, given they are hosting this season’s AFCON - and their recent success on the international stage. They were just a few percentage points ahead of Egypt as second-favourites, before a drop-off to Senegal and Nigeria.
The UEFA Champions League
There were two runaway leaders here, with Liverpool (30.9%) and Barcelona (26.1%) making up more than half of the total vote. Defending champions PSG received only 4.2% of the vote.
The Copa Libertadores
Maybe the exposure from the Club World Cup means that /r/soccer knows a bit more about South American football now… we’ll see. Flamengo were the most popular choice with 34.4% of the vote, followed by Palmeiras with 25.3%, Botafogo with 16%, and River Plate with 14.2%.
The Men’s Ballon d’Or
The betting favourite was the /r/soccer favourite too - and it was a landslide for Dembele with 67.5% of the vote, ahead of Yamal and Salah.
The Women’s Ballon d’Or
A far closer race for the women’s award, with two-time winner Aitana Bonmati just edging out Lionesses super sub Chloe Kelly, with 39.5% compared to 34.7%.) Alexia Putellas and Leah Williamson were next, with 10.8% and 7% of the vote respectively.
Part 2 - Major European domestic leagues
In the interest of brevity, only the prediction for the title winners, Champions League qualifiers, relegated teams, and Golden Boot winners for the top four European leagues were surveyed - and then the winners of a selection of others.
*n.b. for the top 4 and relegated team predictions, the percentages given indicted the proportion of respondents who picked them, as a "yes/no”"binary, e.g. “50% of voters thought Everton would be relegated”.
The English Premier League
Their impressive transfer window has convinced /r/soccer, as nearly half of voters backed Liverpool to defend their title. Man City were second favourites with 23.4% ahead of Arsenal with 16.5%… and then Chelsea with 6.9%.
The top 4 Note: the percentages represent the proportion of voters who thought a team would finish in the top 4
There were four teams well ahead of the rest, with /r/soccer voting for the following:
- Liverpool (97.4%)
- Man City (97.2%)
- Arsenal (92.1%)
- Chelsea (88.6%)
Next were the other two members of the ‘big 6’ - Man United with 8.4%, and Spurs with 6.8%.
The relegated teams
The promoted teams were picked to go straight back down:
- Burnley (76.9%)
- Sunderland (59.7%)
- Leeds (57.2%)
There was a big dropoff to Wolves and Brentford - but they were close as next favourites with 30.3% and 28.9%.
The Golden Boot winner
57.7% voted for Erling Haaland to win his second Golden Boot in three seasons. Mo Salah was next with 13.1% of the vote, and then Alexander Isak with 9.3% - despite the current uncertainty over his future.
La Liga
Barcelona were the overwhelming favourites with 67.1%, ahead of El Clasico rivals Real Madrid with 23.7%, and Atletico Madrid with 7.7% - leaving about 2% for anyone else.
The top 4
Okay, so this was weird. Barcelona won the league champions votes, but more seemed to think they’d have a disaster season and drop out of the top 4, compared to Real and Atleti?? It seems like there might have been an error with the data here, but couldn’t figure out how to fix it or what the exact issue was, so apparently…
- Real Madrid (89.7%)
- Atletico Madrid (60.5%)
- Barcelona (58.7%)
- Athletic Bilbao (44.1%)
Real Betis were next, with 15.4%.
The relegated teams
The relegation battle had two clear favourites, and then a bit of a drop off to Alaves.
- Elche (75.9%)
- Real Oviedo (60%)
- Alaves (40.7%)
Levante were next favourites, with 32% of the vote.
The Pichichi (Golden Boot) winner
71.2% predicted Kylian Mbappe would win the Pichichi for the second year running - before a close battle for second between the 8% who voted for Robert Lewandowski, and 6.5% who picked Lamine Yamal.
The German Bundesliga
Unsurprisingly, that is Bayern Munich with a massive 93.3% of the vote - Dortmund were second, with just 3.9%.
The top 4
The surprise here is just how many remain so confident in Dortmund, I think…
- Bayern Munich (99.3%)
- Borussia Dortmund (92.4%)
- Bayer Leverkusen (66.1%)
- Eintracht Frankfurt (53.2)
RB Leipzig were next, with a 44.7% “yes” vote.
The relegated teams
The complication of the relegation playoff system in Germany means that there are only two teams guaranteed to be relegated from the Bundesliga - and then one in the relegation playoff. As such, the “bottom three” were:
- Heidenheim (76.8%)
- St Pauli (58.7%)
- Koln (38%) Hamburg were shortly behind Koln, with 30.6%.
The Golden Boot winner
There are few results as definitive as this one in the whole survey - 96.6% of voters predicted Harry Kane would make it a hat-trick of Bundesliga Golden Boots.
Italian Serie A
Our final top 4 European league made it four from four for the defending champions - Napoli winning the Serie A stakes with 39% of the vote, ahead of Inter with 32% and Milan with 10.8%.
The top 4
Despite the surprise names of recent years qualifying for the Champions League from Serie A, /r/soccer decided to stick with the big names, voting the following top 4:
- Inter (92%)
- Napoli (87.1%)
- Juventus (74.9%)
- Milan (55.7%)
Roma were next, with 36.7%.
The relegated teams
I never know whether for leagues outside the PL, /r/soccer just votes for teams they’ve heard about the least… anyway:
- Cremonese (76.9%)
- Pisa (73.9%)
- Lecce (47%)
Verona were next with 26.9% of the vote.
The Capocannoniere (Golden Boot) winner
There was a much more even split of the vote in Serie A, with Lautaro Martinez the the most popular choice with 29.3% of the vote, before Romelu Lukaku with 17.2% and Marcus Thuram with 8.2%. Dušan Vlahović in second with 13.1%.
Selected other European league champions
Yup, that’s PSG with 92.3% of the vote.
Nearly half picked PSV - Ajax were second, with about a third of the vote.
Benfica were the favourites with 53.8% of the vote, and then Porto edged out Sporting as second-favourites, with 27% of the vote compared to 17.8%.
Club Brugge were /r/soccer’s favourites with 44.2%, followed by defending champions Union SG with 20.8% and Anderlecht with 15.7%.
Last season, 85.7% voted for Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership. This season it was 85.9% - so at least we’re staying consistent.
(And yes that is Rangers with the only other visible slice of the pie.)
Sometimes you really th…
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