Real Madrid's shoot-out glory: 2025/26 UEFA Youth League at a glance

Real Madrid claimed victory in the 2025/26 UEFA Youth League, securing their second title after winning both finals games on penalties.

Madrid equalised seven minutes from time in their semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain before goalkeeper Javier Navarro made three saves to turn an epic shoot-out. Club Brugge were the first Belgian finalists after knocking out free-scoring Benfica, and they took Madrid to another spot-kick session after coming from behind for a 1-1 draw in the decider, but two more Javier Navarro stops were decisive as the Spanish side followed up their 2019/20 success.

The finals themselves were played at the Stade de la Tuilière due to renovation works at the regular Swiss venue, Colovray Stadium in Nyon. This was the second season of the new expanded format introduced alongside the new UEFA Champions League competition system, and produced more goals than ever before, plus the UEFA Youth League's first-ever 50,000 crowd when Köln hosted Inter in the round of 32.

Top scorers

10 Rodrigo Marina (Real Betis)

9 Bendegúz Kovács (AZ Alkmaar)
9 Gonçalo Moreira (Benfica)
9 Francisco Silva (Benfica)
9 Emre Ünüvar (Ajax)

Records and key stats

• Real Madrid are only the third team to win multiple titles after Barcelona (three) and Chelsea (two).
• Club Brugge were the first Belgian side to reach the final and the 14th different finalists from the 12th distinct association. They were also the first Belgian club to reach a UEFA competition final since Action 21 Charleroi in the 2004/25 UEFA Futsal Cup.
• This was the first of the 12 finals to go to penalties.
• Benfica scored a competition-record 39 goals in their campaign (beating Chelsea's mark of 36 from 2014/15).
• Benfica and Real Madrid equalled Barcelona by reaching the four-team finals for a fifth time.
• This was the first time all four semi-finalists had begun in the UEFA Champions League path since 2021/22.
• A competition-record crowd of 50,000 watched Köln play Inter in the round of 32 (breaking the mark of 40,368 set by Trabzonspor vs Inter in the 2024/25 quarter-finals).
• Real Madrid kept up their record of reaching at least the round of 16 in all 12 editions. They have also now got to an unmatched nine quarter-finals, and in the course of this season became the first club to play 100 matches in this competition.
• Atlético de Madrid maintained their own feat of always reaching at least the round of 32 or the play-offs (the equivalent under the old format).
• Ajax's Emre Ünüvar scored nine goals in the league phase, equalling the record from the old group stage set by Roberto Núñez of Atleti in 2015/16.
• Luca Williams-Barnett of Tottenham Hotspur became the fifth player to score five goals in a UEFA Youth League game during their league phase win against Slavia Praha.
• Clubs from the Faroe Islands (Víkingur) and Gibraltar (Lincoln Red Imps) became the first from their nations to get through a round. Indeed, Lincoln Red Imps secured Gibraltar's first match victories in the UEFA Youth League.
• The 845 goals for the season is the most in any of the 12 editions, and even allowing for the greater number of matches played in the format introduced in 2024/25, 3.86 per game is still a record.

Roll of honour

Finals
2026: Real Madrid 1-1, 4-2pens Club Brugge (beaten semi-finalists: Benfica & Paris Saint-Germain)
2025: Barcelona 4-1 Trabzonspor (beaten semi-finalists: AZ Alkmaar & Salzburg)
2024: Olympiacos 3-0 AC Milan (beaten semi-finalists: Nantes & Porto)
2023: AZ Alkmaar 5-0 Hajduk Split (beaten semi-finalists: AC Milan & Sporting CP)
2022: Benfica 6-0 Salzburg (beaten semi-finalists: Atlético de Madrid & Juventus)
2021: No competition
2020: Real Madrid 3-2 Benfica (beaten semi-finalists: Salzburg & Ajax)
2019: Porto 3-1 Chelsea (beaten semi-finalists: Barcelona & Hoffenheim)
2018: Barcelona 3-0 Chelsea (beaten semi-finalists: Manchester City & Porto)
2017: Salzburg 2-1 Benfica (beaten semi-finalists: Barcelona & Real Madrid)
2016: Chelsea 2-1 Paris Saint-Germain (beaten semi-finalists: Anderlecht & Real Madrid)
2015: Chelsea 3-2 Shakhtar Donetsk (beaten semi-finalists: Anderlecht & Roma)
2014: Barcelona 3-0 Benfica (beaten semi-finalists: Real Madrid & Schalke)

All finals played in Nyon except 2026 in Lausanne and 2023 in Geneva

Top scorer by season
2025/26: Rodrigo Marina (Real Betis) 10
2024/25: Matvii Ponomarenko (Dynamo Kyiv), Mamadou Sangaré (Paris Saint-Germain), Phillip Verhounig (Salzburg) 8
2023/24: Amin Chiakha (Copenhagen), Rodrigo Mora (Porto) 7
2022/23: Bilal Mazhar (Panathinaikos), Mexx Meerdink (AZ Alkmaar) 9
2021/22: Mads Hansen (Midtjylland), Aral Simsir (Midtjylland) 7
2020/21: season cancelled
2019/20: Roberto Piccoli (Atalanta), Gonçalo Ramos (Benfica) 8
2018/19: Charlie Brown (Chelsea) 12
2017/18: Ivan Ignatev (Krasnodar) 10
2016/17: Jordi Mboula (Barcelona), Kaj Sierhuis (Ajax) 8
2015/16: Roberto Nuñez (Atlético de Madrid) 9
2014/15: Dominic Solanke (Chelsea) 12
2013/14: Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona) 11

Most titles

By club

3 Barcelona
2 Chelsea
2 Real Madrid
1 AZ Alkmaar
1 Benfica
1 Olympiacos
1 Porto
1 Salzburg

By country

5 Spain
2 England
2 Portugal
1 Austria
1 Greece
1 Netherlands

Most final appearances

By club

4 Benfica
4 Chelsea
3 Barcelona
2 Real Madrid
2 Salzburg
1 AC Milan
1 AZ Alkmaar
1 Club Brugge
1 Hajduk Split
1 Olympiacos
1 Paris Saint-Germain
1 Porto
1 Shakhtar Donetsk
1 Trabzonspor

By country

5 Spain
5 Portugal
4 England
2 Austria
1 Belgium
1 Croatia
1 France
1 Greece
1 Italy
1 Netherlands
1 Türkiye
1 Ukraine

Most semi-final appearances

By club

5 Barcelona
5 Benfica
5 Real Madrid
4 Chelsea
4 Salzburg
3 Porto
2 AC Milan
2 Anderlecht
2 AZ Alkmaar
2 Paris Saint-Germain
1 Ajax
1 Atlético de Madrid
1 Club Brugge
1 Hajduk Split
1 Hoffenheim
1 Juventus
1 Manchester City
1 Nantes
1 Olympiacos
1 Roma
1 Schalke
1 Shakhtar Donetsk
1 Sporting CP
1 Trabzonspor

By country

11 Spain
9 Portugal
5 England
4 Austria
4 Italy
3 Belgium
3 France
3 Netherlands
2 Germany
1 Croatia
1 Greece
1 Türkiye
1 Ukraine

Bold = including 2026