Michael Olise & Vincent Kompany win German Players’ Union awards, eight Bayern players in Team of the Season

Bayern’s excellent Bundesliga campaign has seen eight players from the champions named in the German Players’ Union (VDV) Team of the Season for 2025/26. The annual vote is open to all players in the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2, 3. Liga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga, as well as all other VDV members. They named Manuel Neuer (19.7%), Dayot Upamecano (48.4%), Jonathan Tah (41.8%), Konrad Laimer (55.7%), Joshua Kimmich (73.8%), Michael Olise (91.0%), Luis Díaz (53.3%) and Harry Kane (93.4%) in the best XI from the season, plus Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund, 52.5%), Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen, 35.2%) and Deniz Undav (VfB Stuttgart, 53.3%).

Olise named Player of the Season

Bayern also dominated the individual Player of the Season vote with a one-two finish. Olise took the award with 71.8% of the vote, ahead of teammate and top scorer Kane (23.9%). Olise had already won the Bundesliga’s Player of the Season award and been named alongside Kane in the Champions League’s Team of the Season.

After guiding Bayern to back-to-back Bundesliga titles, Vincent Kompany received the silver dugout trophy for the Bundesliga’s best coach with 71.8% of votes ahead of Mainz’s Urs Fischer (6.4%) and Julian Schuster of Freiburg (5.5%).

Lennart Karl came second in the Newcomer of the Year award with 20.7% of votes, finishing behind RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande (30.6%).

What is the VDV?

The German Players’ Union represents the interests of professional footballers working in Germany. It supports its more than 1,400 members with professional services in areas such as labour law, medicine, sports psychology and media training. The VDV was founded by players in 1987.