Following the conclusion of this season’s UEFA Champions League on Saturday when Real Madrid overcame Liverpool 1-0 to secure their 14th success in the competition, UEFA's Technical Observer panel selected and released their 2021/22 Champions League Team of the Season.
The team is made up of standout stars from each of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, each of which were sides that reached the latter stages of this year’s competition. A full rundown of the list of players is below:
Goalkeeper
Thiabult Courtois (Real Madrid)
Defenders
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Andy Robertson (Liverpool)
Midfielders
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Fabinho (Liverpool)
Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)
Forwards
Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid)
While there can be few complaints about the players selected, there’s one Premier League player who can feel pretty aggrieved that he didn’t make the cut.
Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez has been one of the Premier League champions’ star performers this season, scoring 24 goals while registering a further nine assists. That’s his best return since arriving at the Etihad and was achieved despite accumulating fewer minutes than he had in each of his last two seasons at the club.
He was particularly important to City’s Champions League campaign, where he registered nine-goal contributions for Pep Guardiola’s side. Yet when it came to the panel selecting their team of the year, Mahrez was overlooked in place of PSG’s Mbappe.
The Frenchman is of course a huge name on the European stage and did put in a number of standout displays in the competition this season, notably scoring home and away against eventual winners Real Madrid.
However, underlying numbers suggest that Mahrez had a greater attacking influence within the competition this season. The Algerian scored one goal more than Mbappe, and bettered him in terms of accumulating more shot-creating actions across the course of the season.
As defined by Fbref, a shot-creating action is defined as one of the two offensive actions that lead directly to a shot on goal, such as a dribble, pass or winning a foul. Mahrez this season contributed 47, while Mbappe just 30.
There were actually only two players - Vinicius Junior and Kingsley Coman - who could better the City man in this department this season.
Mbappe’s star status most likely proved a decisive factor in him getting the nod over Mahrez, though there’s little doubt the Algerian should feel unfortunate not to have made the cut.
