AC Milan 2025-26 end of season awards: Goals, signings, moments and more

AC Milan’s 2025-26 campaign is one that had so much promise at various points, but ultimately crashed and burned in an almost unparalleled way.

The minimum objective going into the season was to qualify for the Champions League, and yet in early-March Massimiliano Allegri and his men found themselves in the Scudetto picture. Those hopes died off quite quickly from there, but there was still a sizeable cushion over fifth place.

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After a run of just 10 points amassed in the last 10 games, that gap got eroded and meant a final-game shootout involving four teams (Roma, Como and Juventus being the others) competing for two spots. A 2-1 home defeat to an already-safe Cagliari was the collapse to end all collapses.

Not only that, but the Rossoneri did very little in the cup competitions either despite having no European distractions. They were eliminated in the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia by Lazio, and were beaten in the Supercoppa Italiana by Napoli at the first hurdle.

It was a real rollercoaster of a season that will unfortunately be remembered for the near-vertical drop right at the end. With all that being said, who and what scoops the awards for 2025-26?

🏆 #ACMilan 2025-26 awards time! Tell us your:

➤ Player of the season:
➤ Goal of the season:
➤ Game of the season:
➤ Moment of the season:
➤ Biggest surprise:
➤ Worst player:
➤ Best and worst signings:
➤ Worst moment:

🗣 Copy and reply below 👇 pic.twitter.com/mQPngfr8c2

— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) June 3, 2026

Player of the season

Realistically, there are probably only three contenders for this particular award when you weigh up the amount of minutes played and their importance in the positive parts, like the first half of the campaign and the 24-game unbeaten run.

With Luka Modric and Mike Maignan joining him on the podium, we will give this to Adrien Rabiot. When considering the low fee that he arrived for (just €7m) and the impact that he had (11 goal contribution in 29 games), it is hard to ask for much more.

The Frenchman’s future looks uncertain after his big sponsor Massimiliano Allegri was sacked, but if Milan are to keep hold of Rabiot then they have one of the best box-to-box players in the league and someone for a new coach to rely on in terms of end product and experience.

The reason he gets the slight edge over Modric and Maignan is because the Croatian looked exhausted by the end of the campaign, and understandably so, while the captain was outstanding in a lot of matches but also a liability in others with near-post issues still plaguing him.

Goal of the season

Once again Rabiot scoops this particular prize for his goal against Torino. With Milan reeling from the two goals conceded at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, it was going to take a bit of magic to get them back into the game, and it came from his left boot.

Having not scored yet since his summer move from Marseille at this particular point, the midfielder lined up an audacious shot from 25 yards out and fizzed it right into the top corner past a diving Israel in the Granata goal.

It was a fitting response after Allegri said during his pre-match press conference that he wanted more goals from the midfielders, but that he felt one was coming for Rabiot. Honourable mentions go to Strahinja Pavlovic (also vs. Torino) and Christopher Nkunku vs. Fiorentina.

🚀 The last time we faced Torino, Rabiot did this 😍pic.twitter.com/kNS8YfEAx7

— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) March 21, 2026

Game of the season

This is a bit more tricky, because although the season ended in such a bitter way there were plenty of big wins. Looking ahead to the next category as a chance to mention one of them, we will go for the 2-1 win over Napoli in late September.

Milan had begun well and made a big statement early in the season as they beat the champions at San Siro in the Sunday night primetime slot. The Rossoneri blew Antonio Conte’s men away in the first half, with Alexis Saelemaekers and Christian Pulisic scoring from sweeping counter-attacks.

Then came the test of the team’s mettle as Pervis Estupinan got a red card and Kevin De Bruyne tucked away the resulting penalty. A siege from the away side predictably followed, but Milan stood tall and secured a massive win.

The outpouring of emotion at full-time was what makes the game stick in the memory. Modric – a player who has won everything there is to win in club football – was on his haunches with a beaming smile. Allegri’s reaction was predictably hilarious, and the celebrations under the Curva were magical.

Moment of the season

With just less than 20 minutes on the clock and with Milan leading 1-0 thanks to Christian Pulisic’s opportunistic goal, there was a hugely controversial moment in the first derby meeting of the season back in November.

Marcus Thuram went down after a late challenge from Strahinja Pavlovic, and Simone Sozza awarded a penalty after a VAR review. Over to Maignan, who had saved the last penalty he faced from Paulo Dybala, the first spot kick in all competitions that the Argentine failed to convert for Roma out of 19 attempts.

Calhanoglu is lethal from the spot for Inter, so many presumed automatically it would be 1-1 very quickly. However, Maignan ‘mentally outwitted’ Calhanoglu by walking to the spot and telling him where to shoot. Then, when on his line, he took a subtle step to try influence his thoughts.

In truth the Turkey international still took a decent spot kick that was heading into the bottom-left corner. Yet, Maignan was there with his outstretched right arm to half it, and Milan would go on to claim bragging rights.

Biggest surprise

This is another category that potentially only has a handful of nominees, at least in the positive sense. Zachary Athekame did well after his under-the-radar arrival from Young Boys, while Rabiot perhaps did even better than many thought.

The breakout man though was undoubtedly Davide Bartesaghi, who started the season as Pervis Estupinan’s back-up. After the Ecuadorian got injured he stepped up into the wing-back role (despite being a natural full-back or even centre-back) and never relinquished it.

His brace against Sassuolo in December for his first Serie A goals are a contender for the moment of the season. As Milanisti ourselves, we cannot hide that it does mean that bit more when a boyhood fan of the club achieves his dream of scoring at San Siro in front of the stands he used to be in.

Admittedly the 20-year-old did have a tough end to the campaign, but he was 19 for most of it so mistakes were to be expected, and the entire team seemed to get sucked into a decline. The future is very bright for Barte.

Worst player

This is quite a tough call to make, and sadly not for the right reasons. Fikayo Tomori had a few disastrous games and got a costly red card in the late-season defeat to Sassuolo, so he deserves a mention.

The other obvious one is Estupinan, who as mentioned signed in the summer but never looked convincing. He is also responsible for the sliding doors moment of 2025-26, when Milan lost 1-0 away at Lazio after Gustav Isaksen got in behind him.

The team collapsed after that game, having been Scudetto contenders before it. What followed wasn’t entirely his fault though, and he did show some glimpses early in the season, plus he scored the derby winner in the return game.

However, we are going to choose Santiago Gimenez. He played the first part of the campaign injured which some may say is noble and others would argue is reckless, yet he still missed some huge chances you would expect a striker to take.

The Mexican then came back hoping to score goals ahead of a home World Cup, yet all that grew was his drought rather than his confidence. For a €30m+ man to provide absolutely nothing of note made him the poster boy of an attack that under-produced nearly all season.

Best and worst signings

We gave player of the season to Rabiot which means he should get best signing, but we will give Modric his flowers here instead because of the overall impact he had on the team. He was the man Allegri built the entire system around, and without him Milan looked lost.

At 40 years of age he continued to run the show, proving to be an effective metronome but also a screen in front of the defence. He was the chief organiser and the top creator, something not seen since the Andrea Pirlo days in truth. On a free transfer as well, it has to be the Maestro.

The worst signing has to go to Estupinan too, because of what he delivered relative to the price tag, his past at Brighton and the very big shoes he has to fill. Absolutely nobody will be irate if he leaves despite him being a derby hero, which says everything.

Honourable mentions go to Christopher Nkunku and especially the midfield pair Ardon Jashari and Samuele Ricci. That might sound harsh, and in truth they get a bit of a pass because of the way they were (mis)used, but again on a price-to-performance ratio they all failed to deliver.

Worst moment

There can be only one: when the final whistle went at San Siro after the 38th and final game of a torturous end to the season. The capitulation had been completed and the players looked shellshocked and jeers rained down from those who remained in the stadium.

It was then that the magnitude of what had unfolded became utterly sobering. Another year without Champions League football, another hard reset to come (and boy did it come) and all of the uncertainty that comes with it.

Above all, it was the feeling of a year entirely wasted. Allegri said it himself, all the work done could be thrown away in that 90 minutes and it was. The months of watching aesthetically offensive performances had ultimately led to not achieving any objective on any front.

That night against Cagliari – after the false dawn a week prior against Genoa – will become the new symbol of the RedBird Capital era, one of incompetence, protest, chaos and confusion. Can they right the ship?