It’s always fun to see who’s up and who’s down, so with 2024 about to end, let’s do exactly that by looking at the Opta Power Rankings and how they’ve changed through the year.
It has been an excellent year for some teams, and less so for others.
Trophies have been lifted, relegations have been suffered, celebrations have been had and tears have been shed.
As 2024 comes to a close, we thought we’d take a look at the Opta Power Rankings to see who the big climbers and big fallers were over the last 12 months.
For those unaware, the Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 men’s domestic football teams and over 2,000 women’s domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Scores are determined based on performances relative to others, so beating Real Madrid will give you more points than beating Real Valladolid, for example.
So, let’s take a look at who had a good year and who had a bad one in with the Opta Power Rankings, starting with the men.
opta power rankings
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What a chaotic start to 2024 it was for Liverpool. Before January had even ended, the club was rocked by the announcement that legendary manager Jürgen Klopp was to leave at the end of the 2023-24 season. They still won the EFL Cup a month later but their Premier League title challenge faded away while they were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by eventual winners Atalanta.
However, thanks to the excellent start to life in England by Klopp’s replacement, Arne Slot, Liverpool have not only stopped themselves from the sort of dips seen at Manchester United and Arsenal following the departures of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger respectively, but they have actually leapt forward. They’re eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, while the Reds also lead the inaugural 36-team league phase of the UEFA Champions League with two matches to go.
Wins this season over Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Manchester City have seen them rise to the top of the Power Rankings too, meaning they moved up four places in 2024 having been fifth on 1 January 2024.
They have, in fact, swapped places with Man City, who were top of the pile at the start of the year. That continued through most of 2024 until their recent run of results that’s seen Pep Guardiola’s men win just two of their last 14 games this calendar year (D3 L9). City now find themselves in fifth place, hoping to arrest their slide in 2025, though they may have already started to do so following their 2-0 win at Leicester City on Sunday.
In terms of the rest of the top 10, Serie A champions Inter have moved up to second from fourth place, while Arsenal are up to third from sixth after a strong year that saw them win 26 of their 36 Premier League games, even though they were pipped to the title by City last season.
Both have gone ahead of Real Madrid, who dropped two places to fourth despite winning the Champions League in 2023-24. Their struggles in this season’s competition coupled with a rocky start in the league has cost them somewhat, though their form has picked up in recent weeks.
Bayern Munich are top of the Bundesliga and going well under Vincent Kompany, but they’ve slipped from third to 10th in the Power Rankings this year, mostly due to last season when they failed to win the league for the first time in over a decade. Despite that, Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen haven’t moved at all, remaining in ninth place even though they won their first ever Bundesliga, lifted the DFB-Pokal and reached the Europa League final. Recent poor results in the league are likely the main culprit for halting their rise.
Speaking of that Europa League final, Atalanta – who lead Serie A at the end of 2024 – have muscled their way into the top 10, up from 28th place at the start of the year, while Barcelona have also moved into the mix, up to eighth from 11th. Atlético Madrid (12th) and RB Leipzig (39th) have since lost their places in the top 10, with the latter paying the price for losing all six of their Champions League games this season.
Big Movers
Due to the nature of the Power Rankings, a lot of the biggest movers in 2024 will have been lower down, with teams getting promoted and facing better teams or relegated and taking on worse teams. So, for the sake of this review, we’ll just be looking at the top 100.
Despite reaching the Champions League final in May, Borussia Dortmund have fallen from 15th to 25th in the Power Rankings, while Tottenham have slipped from 16th to 24th.
Lazio’s impressive form in Serie A has seen them move up from 32nd to 15th, while Ligue 1 outfit Lille have gone from 36th to 20th.
As far as Premier League teams go, Chelsea’s form may have dipped in the last few games, but they have still seen an overall climb of 17 places this season, up to 13th from 30th. Aston Villa will consider themselves to have had a good year, but they’ve actually dropped from 13th to 27th, while Brighton & Hove Albion went from 18th to 36th.
Bournemouth have started the season well and Andoni Iraola’s men have moved up from 53rd place at the start of 2024 to 30th now, but it’s perhaps unsurprisingly Nottingham Forest who have been the big climbers, rising to 33rd place from 74th in just 12 months. Fulham sit one spot below in 34th, up from 50th 12 months ago.
West Ham’s drop has been as big as anyone’s, going from 20th in January to 48th at the end of December, but we’re sure people will be most curious about Manchester United.
The Red Devils sat in 27th spot at the start of the year, but it should be remembered they were struggling under Erik ten Hag at the time and had already been knocked out of Europe. They haven’t made a great start to life under Ten Hag’s replacement, Ruben Amorim, to say the least, now finding themselves 40th in the Power Rankings, below the likes of Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Club Brugge.
Amorim did play a part in his former club Sporting CP going from 26th to 14th, though, while Al Hilal continue to rise up the rankings as the premier representative from Asia. The Saudi Pro League side are 31st, up from 58th at the start of the year.
Despite Botafogo winning the Copa Libertadores, they aren’t quite the highest-ranked team from South America, sitting one place (64th) behind Palmeiras (63rd). However, they did move up a whopping 91 places, having started 2024 in 155th.
Columbus Crew are the highest-ranked team in North America (76th) having moved up from 140th, with Al Ahly the top-ranked African team (99th), up from 164th.
Barcelona and Chelsea Leapfrog Lyon
As far as the women’s rankings go, there are also new leaders at the end of the calendar year. Barcelona were second behind Lyon on 1 January 2024, but the French side have since slipped to third, with Barça and Chelsea going above them.
The Spanish giants beating Lyon in the 2023-24 Women’s Champions League final played a big part in their taking of top spot, while Chelsea’s impressive start to life under former Lyon boss Sonia Bompastor has also seen them sneak ahead.
Wolfsburg finishing second to Bayern Munich in the German Women’s Bundesliga last season, as well as sitting third in 2024-25, has seen them drop from fourth the ninth in the Power Rankings, with Bayern up to sixth from eighth.
Women’s Super League trio Manchester City (fourth), Arsenal (fifth) and Manchester United (seventh) have all moved up two places during the year, while Paris Saint-Germain have fallen out of the top 10 altogether. The French side were fifth at the start of 2024, but now sit 12th.
Portland Thorns were the only representatives from the NWSL in the top 10 on 1 January 2024, but they have since dropped to 18th. Two sides from the United States have managed to move up into the top 10, though, with Kansas City Current up to eighth from 17th and Gotham FC up to 10th spot from 14th.
You can find your team below. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be the biggest climbers in 2025… or the biggest fallers.
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Opta Power Rankings Across 2024: Liverpool, Inter and Arsenal Rise as Man City and Real Madrid Fall Opta Analyst.
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