You only need a fraction of a second to recognise Michael Olise’s footballing class. He gathers the ball, starts to dribble, a stepover, a pass, a shot. The 24-year-old has once again brought world-class quality to Bayern’s wings since his 2024 move from Crystal Palace. He embodies footballing elegance, pace, mastery of the ball and a fiendish finish with his wand of a left foot. He’s good. Very good. And that has now been recognised with the France international voted the Bundesliga’s Player of the Season for 2025/26 after the final game of the season against Köln.
We’ve got to see all that in 2025/26 with delightful regularity. No player has provided more assists in the Bundesliga and only Harry Kane was involved in more.
Consistency personified
Consistency personified
Olise has managed to take his reliability to yet another level. While some players may grab a hat-trick and then go weeks without scoring or having an impact, our right winger has displayed remarkable consistency in his impact in the final third in terms of goals, assists and all-round threat to opposition defences.
Few players across Europe’s top five leagues have had as many touches of the ball in the final third as Olise. He doesn’t make many mistakes. His first touch is almost unrivalled, just as his ability to pierce a defence. “As soon as he touches the ball, opposition defenders are in a spin,” Roy Makaay once described.
An extraordinary player and person
Olise no longer takes a back seat to others in the public eye. Instead, through his laid-back demeanour and the occasional fashion surprise, he has since carved out a brand all of his own. Young people in particular love him off the pitch for simply being different from what society expects of someone who is so much in the spotlight.
No fear of big moments
No fear of big moments
The pressure at Bayern is greater than at his former club, Crystal Palace. Yet Olise showed no signs of nerves, even at the Bernabéu or the Parc des Princes. Hardly anyone works day in, day out with such meticulous attention to detail in pursuit of perfection as he does. That is why his award as the Bundesliga’s 2025/26 Player of the Season comes as no surprise, but is the logical consequence of an outstanding Bundesliga season in which Olise managed to raise his game yet again. And if what Vincent Kompany says is true, he is set to get even better.
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