11 forgotten ballers we can’t believe will play in the 2025-26 Europa League
Former Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and Bayern Munich stars are among the forgotten footballers we can’t believe will be playing in this season’s Europa League.
The 2025-26 Europa League looks wide open, with an eclectic mix of clubs in the absence of a lot of the usual suspects. And you’d be surprised who crops up in their squads.
We’ve pulled together a list of Europa League forgotten stars who are still plying their trade across the continent.
Joao Moutinho (Braga)
One to be filed under ‘he’s still playing!?’.
Yep. The former Wolves and Portugal stalwart is into his third season at Braga, having left Molineux back in 2023.
Classic journeyman coach Carlos Carvalhal steered Braga to a commendable fourth-place finish last season, but he left in the summer. Pep Guardiola’s former assistant Carlos Vicens is now in charge.
Marcos Alonso (Celta Vigo)
Once an Antonio Conte favourite at Chelsea, Alonso’s career has slid into relative obscurity.
He served a function at Barcelona, winning the title under Xavi in his debut season, but he barely featured in his second season in Catalonia.
Last summer, Alonso joined La Liga side Celta Vigo and enjoyed something of a resurgence as they punched above their weight to finish 7th.
This is the Galician club’s proud centenary year and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare in Europe.
Naby Keita (Ferencvaros)
The Guinea international was supposed to be a pillar of the project Jurgen Klopp was building at Liverpool.
He played well over a hundred games in five years for the Reds, but with constant injury niggles it never felt like he nailed down a spot as an indispensable member of Klopp’s squad.
Keita managed a grand total of five appearances for Werder Bremen and has since been sent out on two loans to historic Hungarian giants Ferencvaros, who are managed by… Robbie Keane. Why not?
Olivier Giroud (Lille)
We’d have put the house on Giroud enjoying an Ibrahimovic-esque Indian summer out in the California sunshine. That face was made for LA.
Good job nobody took us up on that because we’d have lost it all. He notched just five goals in 38 appearances for LAFC and quietly returned to Europe.
The veteran striker has made a promising start at Lille, with two goals in four appearances to date.
Xherdan Shaqiri (Basel)
Like Giroud, Shaqiri was surprisingly a bit rubbish out in MLS.
After two forgettable years with Chicago Fire, the enjoyably cube-shaped winger rejoined boyhood club FC Basel last summer.
And he absolutely tore it up after returning to the Swiss Super League. He finished top scorer last season and inspired Basel to the title with 18 goals and 21(!) assists in 34 appearances.
Long live the Shaqirennaisance.
Pontus Jansson (Malmo)
The Leeds United and Brentford cult hero always spoke of his love for his hometown club and made no secret of his desire to see out the twilight years of his playing career back there.
The centre-back has won two Allsvenskan titles, adding to the three he won as a youngster, since his return.
Tanguy Ndombele (Nice)
Still not far off the most expensive signing in Tottenham’s history, Ndombele was a curious figure.
You could see flashes of the talent, but he never seemed particularly arsed about making a success of his time in North London.
He won league titles with Napoli and Galatasaray during his loans away, eventually joining Jim Ratcliffe-backed Nice last year. He made just 13 starts, notching one goal and two assists last season. Sounds about right.
Renato Sanches (Panathanaikos)
Did you know this one-time wonderkid is still contracted to PSG?
We can’t see Sanches making his way back into Luis Enrique’s plans at his parent club any time soon. It looks as though he’ll see out the remainder of his presumably lucrative contract, which runs until 2027, with a series of loans away.
After failing to pull up any trees at Roma and Benfica, the midfielder has joined Panathinaikos on loan for the 2025-26 campaign.
Dejan Lovren (PAOK)
The Croatian left Liverpool after a peripheral role in their 2019-20 title victory and went on to win a further three Russian Premier League titles with Zenit Saint Petersburg.
After 18 months in Ligue 1 with Lyon, he recently signed for PAOK on a free transfer.
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Sofyan Amrabat (Real Betis)
The Morocco international featured in Fenerbahce’s narrow Champions League qualifier defeat to Benfica – a result which ultimately saw Jose Mourinho sacked and ending up there instead. Funny old game.
Rather than contest the Europa League with the Turkish Super Lig giants, Amrabat completed a deadline-day switch to Real Betis.
The industrious midfielder joins an eclectic mix of players, with Manuel Pellegrini’s Verdiblancos also boasting former Premier League old boys Antony, Hector Bellerin, Junior Firpo, Giovani Lo Celso and Pablo Fornals.
Sebastian Haller (Utrecht)
What a wild ride it’s been for Haller.
After first catching the eye for Erik ten Hag’s FC Utrecht, he’s had a decent stint in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt, the mandatory flop spell at West Ham and a wonderfully prolific, back-to-back Eredivisie title-winning spell with Ajax.
A big move to Borussia Dortmund was impacted by diagnosis of testicular cancer, but he recovered in time to fire the Ivory Coast to AFCON glory in 2023.
Since then, he spent half of last season at La Liga minnows Leganes, where he scored a grand total of zero goals, before returning to Utrecht for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.
Haller has since rejoined Utrecht on a permanent deal. He’ll be playing Europa League football after helping them finish fourth in the Eredivisie last term.
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