One season after Bayer Leverkusen pulled off the greatest Bundesliga title run in history, Bayern Munich came back and took the trophy with minimum drama. It was a 33rd Bundesliga title for the Bavarians, secured on 4 May 2025 with two matches to spare when Leverkusen drew Freiburg. The gap between the two clubs was 13 points, which tells a clean story: Leverkusen had a fine season, Bayern simply had a better one. This is the full review of a Bundesliga campaign that produced 26 Harry Kane goals, a breakout season from Eintracht Frankfurt, one of the most brutal relegation battles in recent memory, and a reminder that German football always finds a way to be compelling.
Last season: the season that will never be forgotten
Before breaking down 2024/25, it is worth putting the previous campaign in context because Bayer Leverkusen's 2023/24 title changed how German football sees itself. Under Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen went the entire 34-game season without losing. Twenty-eight wins, six draws, 90 points. They also went 51 consecutive competitive matches without a defeat, breaking a 59-year European record set by Benfica. Harry Kane that season scored 36 Bundesliga goals for Bayern in a losing cause, which was itself a record. So 2024/25 began with every team measuring itself against something extraordinary.
Bayern Munich: the machine restarts
Bayern finished the 2024/25 season with 82 points, 99 goals scored and just 32 conceded across 34 matches. They won 25, drew 7 and lost only twice. The second highest-scoring league season by any Bundesliga club in the past decade. What made the difference from 2023/24, when they finished third, was a blend of defensive solidarity and the continued brilliance of Harry Kane. The Englishman was the focal point of everything going forward. Frankfurt 7-2 Bochum was the season's biggest scoreline, but Bayern themselves were relentlessly clinical, rarely dropping points at home and grinding out crucial wins away. This was a squad that knew how to win a title rather than just threaten for one.
Harry Kane: second Golden Boot in a row
Kane finished 2024/25 with 26 Bundesliga goals, winning the Torjagerkanone for the second consecutive season. That follows his record-breaking 36-goal campaign in 2023/24. Combined across both seasons at Bayern, Kane has scored 62 league goals in 68 appearances. For comparison, Robert Lewandowski, the previous holder of all Bayern scoring records, took four seasons to reach 60 Bundesliga goals for the club. Kane is not just filling a seat; he is redefining what elite production looks like in Germany. He also chipped in with assists and link-up play that Bayern's wider system relies on, making him impossible to neutralise through defensive attention alone. If you follow Bundesliga football and you are not building fantasy squads around Kane, you are making life harder than it needs to be.
Bayer Leverkusen: still second but far from ordinary
Defending a title when the whole of Germany knows you achieved something historic the previous year is genuinely difficult. Leverkusen finished second with 69 points, 13 behind Bayern. Their record of 19 wins, 12 draws and 3 losses was not bad at all. A 22-match unbeaten run during the season showed the squad retained real quality. Patrik Schick stepped up with 21 Bundesliga goals and became one of the most reliable strikers in the division. The issue was simply that Bayern raised their level. Leverkusen also had significant Champions League involvement which split their squad's energy across two fronts. Xabi Alonso's squad remains one of the best-built in Germany and a strong candidate for the title in 2025/26.
Eintracht Frankfurt: the season's best story
Eintracht Frankfurt finished third on 60 points, qualifying for the Champions League. It was the kind of campaign that sneaks up on you: by mid-November they were comfortably in the top four and they largely stayed there. The club's pressing game, their home atmosphere and a squad built on genuine athletic intensity made them awkward opponents for everyone. For neutral Bundesliga fans, Frankfurt represented the best answer to the question of whether a non-traditional power could consistently challenge at the top. They showed that the answer is yes, at least for one season.
Borussia Dortmund: a season of inconsistency
Dortmund finished fourth with 57 points on 17 wins, 6 draws and 11 losses. They qualified for the Champions League but the campaign felt like a missed opportunity. The arrival of Serhou Guirassy from Stuttgart the previous summer raised expectations significantly, and Guirassy delivered with 21 Bundesliga goals. But the defensive numbers were poor: 51 conceded across the season, which is far too many for a side with genuine title aspirations. Dortmund's inconsistency in big matches was the defining feature. Guirassy as a carrying force, Karim Adeyemi on the flank, and a midfield that still has identity issues. The pieces are there but the cohesion has to improve.
Relegation: Holstein Kiel's painful debut
Holstein Kiel and VfL Bochum both went down, each finishing with 25 points from identical records of 6 wins, 7 draws and 21 losses. Kiel's story was the more poignant. Promoted for the first time in their history in 2024, they immediately found the Bundesliga's pace and physicality too much to handle. Despite some encouraging individual performances, the squad depth was simply not Bundesliga-level. Bochum had been fighting relegation battles for two consecutive seasons and finally ran out of escapes. Hamburger SV came up from the 2. Bundesliga as champions to fill one of the vacancies, completing their long-awaited return to the top flight.
Bundesliga 2024/25 trivia
- Harry Kane became the first player since the late 1960s to top the Bundesliga scoring charts in consecutive seasons for Bayern Munich.
- Bayer Leverkusen's 22-match unbeaten run in 2024/25 would have been the longest in the entire Bundesliga had it not been for their own record from the previous season.
- Holstein Kiel's Bundesliga debut in 2024/25 lasted exactly one season; they won just 6 of their 34 games.
- Eintracht Frankfurt's 7-2 win over Bochum was the season's highest-scoring match and the biggest away win of the campaign.
- Serhou Guirassy (21 goals) and Patrik Schick (21 goals) both matched each other despite playing in very different systems and club contexts.
- Bayern scored 99 Bundesliga goals, just one short of a century, making them the top-scoring side in Germany by a distance.
What actually happened in 2025/26
Bayern won the title again, this time with 89 points and a Bundesliga-record 122 goals. Harry Kane raised his tally to 36 goals, claiming a third consecutive Torjagerkanone. Dortmund finished second on 73 points, Leipzig third, Stuttgart fourth. Leverkusen slipped to Europa League places. Wolfsburg, Heidenheim and St. Pauli were relegated. See the full story in the 2025/26 Bundesliga Season Review.
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