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After an incredibly dramatic final day that saw both the league title and the relegation play-off spot determined, the 2020-21 Ligue 1 season is now over.
With players from clubs like Lille, Paris St. Germain and Lyon all having outstanding campaigns, Ligue 1 has been one of the best competitions to watch this season.
So with this in mind, here are the 5 best players in Ligue 1 in the 2020-21 season.
#1 Kylian Mbappe – Paris St. Germain
Paris St. Germain ended up missing out on the Ligue 1 title in 2020-21, finishing the campaign one point behind eventual winners Lille despite being hot favorites going in.
However, Ligue 1’s most outstanding player during 2020-21 was still 22-year old PSG forward Kylian Mbappe.
The France international finished as Ligue 1’s top scorer by a clear seven goals, scoring 27, and also registered seven assists. He did all of this in just 27 starts, meaning that he averaged a goal contribution every 88 minutes, a scarcely believable statistic.
Capable of causing chaos in opposing defenses from basically anywhere across PSG’s front line, Mbappe’s 2020-21 campaign was the second-most fruitful of his young career thus far.
Essentially, when he hits top gear and runs at a defense, there are very few teams in the world capable of stopping him.
Quite how much longer he’ll remain in Ligue 1 is anyone’s guess, as his current deal with PSG expires in the summer of 2022 and he is yet to sign an extension.
But for now at least, this remarkable talent remains in France’s top flight, which is only the better for his presence.
#2 Burak Yilmaz – Lille
The most remarkable Ligue 1 campaign of 2020-21 came from Lille’s Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz.
The eventual Ligue 1 champions were home to some outstanding players this season, from defenders Sven Botman and Jose Fonte to attackers Jonathan David and Yusuf Yazici.
But it was Yilmaz who appeared to be the catalyst for their unlikely charge to their first Ligue 1 title in a decade.
Signed from Besiktas in the summer of 2020, the 35-year old wasn’t expected to make much of an impact. After all, just a few seasons ago he was playing in the Chinese Super League.
But in the end, Yilmaz simply didn’t stop scoring this season – finishing the campaign with 16 goals and five assists.
Most notably, he was responsible for some truly key goals during Lille’s title charge – including a winner against Nimes in a 0-1 victory, a brace in an important 0-3 win over Lens, and most dramatically, a brace and an assist in a crazy come-from-behind 2-3 win over Lyon.
If anything, it was that game that really spurred Lille onto their eventual title victory.
Whether Yilmaz can keep up this startling form into the 2021-22 season is anyone’s guess. But few players produced the goods quite as much as the Turkish international in the current campaign.
#3 Memphis Depay – Lyon
Ligue 1’s assist king during the 2020-21 campaign, Memphis Depay enjoyed a tremendous season for Lyon.
The Dutch international scored 20 goals and registered a league-high 12 assists, meaning that only Kylian Mbappe was involved with more goals in total during the campaign.
No other Ligue 1 player received as many Man of the Match awards – 9 – from WhoScored.com as Depay.
It seems hard to even compare the player who has terrorized defences all across France this season to the big-money flop who played at Manchester United a few years ago, but it shows just how much Depay has improved.
The current campaign saw him open his account with a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Dijon on the first day of the season.
From there, he went onto score key goals against Monaco twice and against Lens, while his trio of assists took Lyon past Strasbourg in a thriller in October.
But more importantly, playing as Lyon’s captain has given him the chance to show that he’s matured mentally as well as on the pitch, too.
It looks likely that Depay will depart Lyon this summer – Barcelona are the club he’s been linked with most – and if he does indeed leave France, then Ligue 1 will be a worse competition for it.
#4 Mike Maignan – Lille
Lille’s attackers might’ve been hugely important to their eventual title win this season, but it’s arguable that their victory was built upon their strong defense.
Incredibly, Christophe Galtier’s side conceded just 23 goals during the 2020-21 Ligue 1 campaign, five less than their nearest rivals Paris St. Germain.
A lot of that had to do with the form of their outstanding goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
The 25-year old – who cost Lille just €1m when he joined them in 2015 – was in phenomenal form throughout the season, preventing what seemed like certain goals on too many occasions to count.
With 21 clean sheets to his name, there’s basically no argument that he’s now Ligue 1’s premier shot-stopper.
Maignan was an ever-present in Lille’s title-winning side, and with a save percentage of 79.4% - stopping 86 of the 107 shots on target he faced – it’s probably fair to question where they would’ve been without him.
Whether Lille can hold onto him is another thing, given that he’s been strongly linked with both AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur, but for now, the France international remains one of Ligue 1’s most outstanding performers.
#5 Aurelien Tchouameni – Monaco
Monaco enjoyed an outstanding 2020-21 campaign, eventually finishing third to qualify for the Champions League after an exceptionally strong finish.
But while forwards Wissam Ben Yedder and Kevin Volland were responsible for 40 of Monaco’s 76 goals, it’s arguable that their most important player was midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni.
Still just 21 years old, Tchouameni joined Monaco from Bordeaux in January 2020, but only made three appearances for the club in 2019-20.
2020-21 however has been a major breakout season for him.
Tchouameni has made 36 appearances for Monaco, and only Memphis Depay has received more Man of the Match awards from WhoScored.com than his total of eight.
A physical beast who plays in a deep-lying role as a destroyer of sorts, Tchouameni’s style belies his young age.
Averaging a total of 3.5 successful tackles and 1.7 interceptions per game – as well as boasting a pass success rate of 82.8% - it should come as no surprise that the youngster has already been compared to N’Golo Kante.
Due to this, the 21-year old has already been linked with a big-money move to Chelsea this summer.
Whether the move goes through is anyone’s guess, but if it does, Ligue 1 will have lost an outstanding talent who should definitely be considered one of the best players of the 2020-21 campaign.
