A complete guide to the 2025-26 Ligue 1 season: Title favourites, relegation battle, top scorer, league table prediction KIK BALL

Top-flight French football returns this weekend, as Rennes and Marseille will get the 2025-26 Ligue 1 season underway at Roazhon Park on Friday night.

Paris Saint-Germain are once again the team to beat, and for the first time in over three decades, French football boasts the European champions, after Luis Enrique’s men thrashed Inter Milan in Munich to win the Champions League for the first time in May.

The Parisians will aim to retain their European crown, with winning another Ligue 1 title often a given, but that does not mean their closest challengers will lay down without a fight.

PSG will also face a local rival for the first time in almost half-a-century, and Ligue 1 produced both a dramatic relegation battle, and a very competitive European race last season, so there is plenty to play for and look forward to in France this season.

Here, Sports Mole previews the upcoming Ligue 1 season, and predicts how the league table could look come May.

The 2025-26 Ligue 1 title favourites:

As is customary at the start of a new Ligue 1 season, PSG are the clear favourites to win the title once again, and after the season they have just enjoyed, winning an unprecedented quadruple, it would be daft to look beyond them retaining it.

PSG have been French champions in 11 of the last 13 years, including in each of the last four seasons, and they will be aiming to become the first to win five in a row since the dominant Lyon side in the 2000s.

Enrique has not needed to add much over the summer, as their XI in the second half of last season was as close to perfect as it comes, but Lucas Chevalier has arrived from Lille with Gianluigi Donnarumma set to leave, while Illia Zabarnyi has also come in to bolster their defence.

The 2025-26 Ligue 1 title challengers:

With PSG starting the season as low as 1/14 to win the title in some places, you would forgive the likes of Monaco and Marseille for competing for second place, and taking a good crack at the Champions League.

Both clubs finished in the top three last season, and will join PSG in the league phase of the Champions League, but the two have been ambitious in the transfer market, and will hope to close the mammoth gap to PSG from last season.

Marseille will hope that they do not implode with spiky manager Roberto De Zerbi in charge, after the Italian hit out at the club and players on more than one occasion last season, but if all remains harmonious, they can certainly close that 19-point gap to their bitter rivals.

The fight for Europe in Ligue 1 in 2025-26:

The battle for the top four was remarkable in Ligue 1 last season, helped by the fact the division has been reduced to 18 teams, as it left six teams battling for the Champions League going into the final two weeks of the season.

Nice eventually prevailed to join PSG, Monaco and Marseille in Europe’s top table, but they look set to be eliminated from qualifying, so will have to go again this season in hopes of securing an automatic spot in the top three.

Lille and Lyon will both have been disappointed to miss out, and to add insult to injury, the two clubs have lost important players across the pitch this summer, with the latter only escaping a demotion to Ligue 2 on appeal.

Rennes are a team to keep an eye on after back-to-back bottom-half finishes, as they improved greatly under Habib Beye in the second half of last season, and could mount a charge for the top seven.

Strasbourg, with a helping hand from Chelsea, have been able to strengthen further, and they have kept in-demand manager Liam Rosenior for the time being, so there is no reason why they cannot take another shot at the top four, despite having to juggle Conference League football this season.

Lens missed out on Conference League football in qualifying last season, and then finished one place outside the European places in Ligue 1, so they will be keen to make amends for that, while Brest and Toulouse will hope to break out of their mid-table shackles and return to Europe after getting a taste of continental action recently.

Who is set to battle against relegation in Ligue 1 in 2025-26?

Paris FC have returned to Ligue 1 for the first time in 46 years, and with very rich owners, they are expected to continue splashing the cash to ensure they become an established top-flight club, with a view to eventually compete with the giants who play across the street from their home at Stade Charlety in the Parc des Princes.

Le Havre, Angers and Nantes were fortunate that Reims capitulated late in the season last year, before eventually losing a relegation playoff, so the aforementioned three are expected to be battling near the bottom once again after recording below-par points tallies in 2024-25.

Metz beat Reims in that playoff, and they join Lorient as the other two clubs to be promoted this season, but unsurprisingly, they are among the favourites to make a swift return to Ligue 2.

Second-tier champions Lorient have only finished above 15th once in their last seven top-flight campaigns, so a season of struggle surely awaits, while Metz have been relegated in both of their last two Ligue 1 seasons.

Which notable new signings will play in Ligue 1 in 2025-26?

All of the headlines over the summer have centred around Paul Pogba’s eagerly-anticipated return to action, and it is Monaco who have taken a punt on the World Cup winner, following an 18-month drugs ban.

Pogba will be joined by another player looking to revitalise his career in Ansu Fati, who has also moved to the principality, and if the two players can replicate any sort of previous form, Monaco could be real dark horses in 2025-26, with a strong side already at Adi Hutter’s disposal.

Chevalier’s move to PSG will be one to keep an eye on, given Donnarumma’s very notable highs and far-too-frequent lows made him something of an enigma in the PSG goal, and there will be a lot of pressure on the new boy, as he has been tipped to be France’s long-term number one.

Outside of PSG, Marseille have made the most expensive acquisition, bringing Igor Paixao in from Feyenoord for £25m, and he will partner last season’s Ligue 1 joint-top scorer Mason Greenwood and the returning Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a fearsome attack, being led by attack-minded manager De Zerbi.

One player to keep an eye on further down the table will be Florian Thauvin, whose career has fizzled out somewhat since being part of the 2018 World Cup-winning squad, but he did perform well at Udinese in Serie A last season, and he could prove to be a smart signing for Lens, who will have top-four ambitions.

Who could finish as top scorer in Ligue 1 in 2025-26?

Many expect PSG to finish as top scorers again, so Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue, among others in their exceptional attack, are likely to be near the top of the standings, but Marseille’s Greenwood shared the gong with Dembele last season.

Marseille could well produce the top scorer again, given De Zerbi’s style of play, and with Greenwood, Aubameyang and Paixao set to start in their front three, goals aplenty could be in store.

With Alexandre Lacazette gone from Lyon, local lad Georges Mikautadze now has the striking spot nailed down at the Groupama Arena, and could flourish, after a strong second half to last season.

Monaco have improved further this summer, and a close eye will be kept on Mika Biereth, who lit the league up after moving from Sturm Graz in January, scoring 13 goals in 16 appearances, including three consecutive home hat tricks.

Also, Olivier Giroud is back in French football for the first time in 13 years, and it would be touching to see him rediscover his old scoring touch at Lille, who need to replace Juve-bound Jonathan David’s goals.

Predicted 2025-26 Ligue 1 table:

1: (C) PSG

2: (UCL) Monaco

3: (UCL) Strasbourg

4: (UCLQ) Marseille

5: (UEL) Lens

6: (UEL) Lille

7: (CONF) Rennes

8: Nice

9: Lyon

10: Toulouse

11: Paris FC

12: Brest

13: Nantes

14: Auxerre

15: Le Havre

16: (RPO) Lorient

17: (R) Angers

18: (R) Metz

Key:

(C) Champions 

(UCL) Champions League

(UCLQ) Champions League Qualifying

(UEL) Europa League

(CONF) Conference League

(RPO) Relegation Playoff

(R) Relegation

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