Twenty-two goals. Twenty-eight assists. Best passer in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. Michael Olise has just beaten Kylian Mbappe to be named the best French player playing abroad. And Nigeria has a quiet claim on him.
Michael Olise has been voted the best French player playing abroad after an extraordinary debut season at Bayern Munich that produced 22 goals and 28 assists. He received the award ahead of a prestigious shortlist that included Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid, Rayan Cherki at Manchester City, Hugo Ekitike at Liverpool, and William Saliba at Arsenal. The fact that a 24-year-old in his first season at a new club beat all of them says everything about the campaign Olise has had.
Victor Osimhen, whose own Galatasaray season ended with a Turkish Super Lig title this week, had already given his verdict on Olise weeks earlier in a separate interview: “Yamal and Olise are unique in their own craft.” High praise from a player who has just topped the UEFA Champions League Player of the Match standings for the entire 2025/26 campaign.
The Season Behind the Award
Olise’s 28 assists in a single European season is one of the most remarkable creative outputs the continental game has produced in recent years. To put it in context: only a handful of players in the history of the Bundesliga have provided that many assists in a full campaign, let alone a player in their debut season at a new club. Combined with 22 goals, his 50 direct goal contributions place him among the most productive players in any major European league in 2025/26.
Being named the best passer in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League simultaneously is an achievement that underlines the consistency of his output. The Champions League recognition is particularly significant given the quality of playmakers involved in the knockout rounds, including players at Arsenal, PSG, Atletico Madrid, and Manchester City. Fans following Bayern’s run through the Champions League can check the full context at FootballInNigeria via the Bet9ja promo page.
What Olise Said After Receiving the Award
“I am very grateful, I wanted to thank everyone at Bayern Munich. I can’t wait to give my all at the World Cup this summer, with the France team.”
The World Cup reference is significant. Olise is fully embedded in the French national team and is expected to be one of the key attacking players for Les Bleus at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. He helped France reach the final of the football event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where they lost to Spain. That tournament was his introduction to major international competition and he has not looked back since. Those following the World Cup build-up can track the French squad preparations at bet9japromotioncode.com.ng.
The Nigerian Heritage That Connects This to Nigerian Football
Michael Olise was born in London on December 12, 2001 to a French mother and a Nigerian father. His father, Michael Olise Snr, is from Nigeria, and the family also holds connections through his Algerian grandmother on his mother’s side. He chose to represent France, the country his mother is from and where he grew up before moving to England as a child.
That choice means Olise will never wear a Super Eagles shirt. But his heritage connects him to the Nigerian football community in a way that makes his achievements worth celebrating beyond the French football conversation. Osimhen’s specific praise of Olise by name, coming from the man who just won four consecutive Super Lig titles and topped the Champions League MOTM chart, reinforces the bond that exists between two players from overlapping worlds. Those who want to follow both players’ journeys at the 2026 World Cup can get started with this Bet9ja bonus code page ahead of the tournament.
Beating Mbappe: The Context That Matters
The shortlist Olise beat was genuinely formidable. Mbappe’s Real Madrid season ended without a La Liga title after Barcelona’s dramatic El Clasico win, and his Champions League exit leaves questions. Rayan Cherki’s debut season at Manchester City has been impressive but disrupted by the adaption to English football. Hugo Ekitike’s Liverpool campaign has been positive without quite reaching the heights of his Eintracht Frankfurt form. Saliba has been outstanding at Arsenal but as a defender his numbers are measured differently.
Olise’s combination of goals and assists at a club of Bayern’s stature, in a season that included their domestic title campaign and deep European run, put him in a category of production that the other nominees simply could not match from an attacking output perspective. The award reflects a unanimous verdict from French football’s technical community that Olise was the nation’s most productive player outside France this season.
Did You Know?
- Michael Olise was born in London on December 12, 2001. His father is Nigerian and his mother is French with Algerian heritage. He spent part of his childhood in France before returning to England, where he developed through the Reading FC academy and caught Crystal Palace’s attention with a series of remarkable performances in the Championship. Palace paid approximately £8 million for him in 2021, and Bayern Munich then paid approximately €50 million to sign him in the summer of 2024.
- Olise became the first player in Bundesliga history to provide 20 or more assists in their debut season at a German club, according to Opta data published in April 2026. His 28 assists across all competitions for Bayern in 2025/26 surpassed the seasonal record set by Thomas Muller, who had been Bayern’s primary creative provider for over a decade before Olise’s arrival.
- Victor Osimhen specifically praised Olise in a widely reported interview during the 2025/26 season, saying “Yamal and Olise are unique in their own craft.” The statement is particularly striking because Osimhen rarely singles out individual players for praise in public, and his pairing of Olise with Barcelona teenage star Lamine Yamal as the two most technically distinctive players of the current generation was noted by observers as a significant endorsement from one of European football’s most credible performers this season.
- Olise chose to represent France over England and Nigeria, the other two nations he could have played for. He earned his first senior France cap in September 2023 and has since become a regular fixture in Didier Deschamps’ squad. His decision to commit to France was made after lengthy consideration of all three pathways available to him, with the French Football Federation reportedly investing significant diplomatic effort in securing his commitment to Les Bleus.
- Rayan Cherki, who finished second to Olise in the Best French Player Abroad voting after his debut season at Manchester City, was signed from Olympique Lyonnais by Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2025 for approximately €35 million. Cherki, who is of Algerian and Rwandan heritage, is one of the most technically gifted midfielders of his generation and his future rivalry with Olise for the most valuable creative player in the French national team setup is one of the most intriguing developments in the next decade of Les Bleus football.
- Hugo Ekitike, who was also on the Best French Player Abroad shortlist after his Liverpool season, was signed from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer of 2025 for approximately €60 million, making him one of the most expensive French strikers in Premier League history. His Nigerian-French heritage mirrors Olise’s own dual background, and the presence of two players with Nigerian heritage in a five-man shortlist for the best French player abroad reflects the growing contribution of the French-Nigerian diaspora to the top level of international football.
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada begins in June 2026. France are among the pre-tournament favourites and their forward line of Mbappe, Olise, Cherki, and Ekitike is considered one of the most formidable attacking groups of any nation at the tournament. Nigeria will be in the same World Cup, and the possibility of a France vs Nigeria fixture at some stage of the tournament would bring the French-Nigerian heritage thread to its most direct and dramatic expression on the biggest possible stage.
