Bundesliga
Harry Kane and Bayern Munich played their part in the Bundesliga taking home the title for Europe's highest scoring league, but where else did Germany's top two tiers lead by example?
A captivating 2024/25 season saw both the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 assert themselves as two of the best leagues in Europe, with the numbers to back that up too.
In fact, they were the first and second most entertaining leagues on the continent this past season – well, that’s not actually a metric we can judge, but goals is!
The Bundesliga saw 959 goals scored in 2024/25, with an average of 3.13 goals each game placing it in first amongst Europe’s top five leagues - and in fact the only one to see over three goals per game.
Unsurprisingly, champions Bayern averaged the most goals per game (2.91), with the Bavarian side netting a grand total of 99 times as they stormed to a 33rd Bundesliga title.
Watch: The best goals of 2024/25
Kane contributed 26 of those goals himself, seeing him take home the Torjägerkanone for the second season in a row, while midfield general Joshua Kimmich helped provide the platform for those goals with his record of 119 touches per game on average the most of any player across Europe's top five leagues, leading a top six that includes teammate Minjae Kim, Bayer Leverkusen's Granit Xhaka, Angelo Stiller of VfB Stuttgart and former Bundesliga duo Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Leonardo Balerdi of Marseille.
And Bundesliga 2? It came close behind in second place, averaging 3.02 goals per game. It did take the crown for most headed goals, however, making up 16.8 percent of last season’s total. Bundesliga newboys Hamburg and top scorer Davie Selke were the main contributors to that figure, with the Red Shorts averaging 0.62 headed goals per game, and Selke attempting 1.29 per 90 minutes. By means of comparison, Erling Haaland had 1.13 headed efforts per game with Manchester City, coming top when considering only first divisions.
Watch: Kane named 2024/25 Player of the Season
The Bundesliga was in second place when it came to the percentage of headed goals scored, with 15.8, meaning Germany’s top two tiers occupied the top two places for yet another statistic in the previous campaign. The tussle between the two divisions continues to go back and forth, with the top tier reclaiming first place when it comes to headed goals per game, averaging 0.5, while it’s the second tier that recorded the highest percentage of shots on goal in Europe, with 27.1 percent.
Watch: The best of Davie Selke in 2024/25
Bundesliga 2 continues to hold its own amongst Europe’s best, especially when it comes to the competitiveness between the top five teams. The 2024/25 season saw the battle for promotion go down to the wire once again, with Cologne only being crowned champions on the final day, and that’s reflected in the numbers.
Over the course of the season, it had the smallest average gap between places one and two (1.1 pts), places one to three (2.3 points) and also between places four and five (0.6 points).
The accolades don’t stop there for Germany’s second tier, which was joint top with France’s Ligue 1 for lowest average age of used players (26.3), and outright first for the amount of game time handed to U21 players, with Bundesliga 2 youngsters seeing 59.8 minutes of action per game on average. Another promising statistic within those figures is that home grown U21 players played 12.5% of the available minutes last season, another European best.
Watch: The best of Cologne in 2024/25
Nuremberg were one of the key promoters of young talent in 2024/25, becoming the only team from a country’s second tier to lie in the top 10 for game time given to U21 players, with 26.9 percent of minutes handed to the next generation of stars.
Finn Jeltsch, Can Uzun, Nathaniel Brown and Jens Castrop are all players that have come through their ranks and earned moves to the Bundesliga in recent years, with both Uzun and Brown playing a part in Eintracht Frankfurt's UEFA Champions League qualification and Jeltsch winning the DFB Cup with VfB Stuttgart in 2024/25, while Castrop is preparing to represent Borussia Mönchengladbach in the upcoming 2025/26 season.
There were plenty of eyes on them too, as they took their first steps in professional football, with the German game well know for its ability to get fans into the stadium. It was the Bundesliga that stole spotlight attendance wise, however, with clubs seeing 96.2% percent of their stadium capacities filled on average, although the Premier League had the best average overall attendance.
Watch: The best of Can Uzun
While they filled more of their stadiums, overall attendance numbers were bettered by the Premier League as a result of sides such as Holstein Kiel, Bochum, Heidenheim and St. Pauli having smaller grounds. That could very well change next season though, with the return of both Hamburg and Cologne, who can both hold at least 50,000 fans in their grounds, replacing Kiel and Bochum, whose stadiums hold less than that combined.
Although the league as a whole couldn’t take the crown for attendance numbers, the club with the highest average spectator figures does belong to the Bundesliga, and it’s none other than Borussia Dortmund. They averaged the highest attendance numbers in Europe with a total of 81,365. It was the first season with that capacity that BVB achieved 100 percent attendance across all 17 home league fixtures.
Watch: Dortmund fans celebrate team after top-four finish
>>> Bundesliga 2 set its season attendance record in 2024/25
Another German club to take home a European record is Leverkusen, who were the only side in the top five leagues to go without losing an away game in 2024/25, an incredible feat considering their endeavours in 2023/24, which saw them go unbeaten both home and away.