La Liga 2026-27: All 20 Teams, Last Season's Table and Top Scorer
Update log (1)
- — Written three days before the opening weekend. The summer transfer window does not close until 1 September, so every squad described here can still change. Nothing on this page is a prediction of how the 2026-27 table will finish.
- The season starts on 15 August 2026 and runs to 30 May 2027 — 380 matches, with a winter break from 22 December to 2 January and the two Clásicos on 25 October at Camp Nou and 9 May at the Bernabéu.
- Barcelona are defending a title they won by eight points. They finished on 94, sealed it with three games to spare, and are the only club to break 90 in the final table.
- Three clubs finished level on 42 points and only Mallorca went down. La Liga separates level teams on head-to-head record before goal difference, which is how Mallorca was relegated despite a better goal difference than Levante, who stayed up.
- Mourinho is the biggest change at the top. Real Madrid appointed him on 11 June 2026 on a three-year deal to 30 June 2029, and he joined on 13 July. Kylian Mbappé arrives in the new season as back-to-back Pichichi winner on 25 goals.
La Liga 2026-27 kicks off on 15 August 2026. Twenty clubs, 380 matches, and a finish line on 30 May 2027.
Three things are already settled and worth knowing before the first whistle: Barcelona are defending a title they won by eight points, three clubs came up from the Segunda, and José Mourinho is back at Real Madrid.
One thing this article will not do is predict the table. The season has not started, so there is nothing to rank on. What follows is the fixture calendar, the 20 clubs, and how last season actually finished — including a relegation that was decided by something other than goal difference.
When does La Liga 2026-27 start?
Saturday 15 August 2026, with the season running to 30 May 2027. The federation has confirmed all 380 Primera División fixtures.
| Date | What |
|---|---|
| 15 Aug 2026 | Season starts |
| 25 Oct 2026 | Clásico, Camp Nou |
| 22 Dec – 2 Jan | Winter break |
| 9 May 2027 | Clásico, Bernabéu |
| 30 May 2027 | Season ends |
There is no Christmas football: the break runs from 22 December to 2 January.
Four opening fixtures have already been moved. Barcelona v Athletic, Real Madrid v Real Sociedad, Atlético Madrid v Málaga and Valencia v Betis will be played midweek on 25, 26 or 27 August, because those clubs had players involved in the World Cup semi-finals or final.
Villarreal, Málaga and Real Sociedad all start away from home by request — stadium works, local events and security considerations.
Which teams are in La Liga 2026-27?
The same 20 as last season, minus the three relegated clubs and plus three promoted ones. Racing Santander, Deportivo La Coruña and Málaga come up; Mallorca, Girona and Real Oviedo went down.
| Up | Down |
|---|---|
| Racing Santander | Mallorca |
| Deportivo La Coruña | Girona |
| Málaga | Real Oviedo |
All three promoted clubs open against established opposition: Racing face Villarreal, Deportivo face Elche, and Málaga face Atlético Madrid.
How did the 2025-26 table finish?
Barcelona won it on 94 points, eight clear of Real Madrid. They sealed a second consecutive title on 10 May with three matches still to play, beating Real Madrid 2-0 to do it — their 29th Spanish championship.
| Pos | Club | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 94 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 86 |
| 3 | Villarreal | 72 |
| 4 | Atlético | 69 |
| 5 | Betis | 60 |
| 6 | Celta | 54 |
| 7 | Getafe | 51 |
Those top five took the Champions League places. Below them the European routes do not follow the table in order: Celta qualified for the Europa League, Getafe for the Conference League, and Real Sociedad also reached the Europa League from tenth by winning the Copa del Rey.
The rest of the table, from eighth down:
| Pos | Club | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Rayo | 50 |
| 9 | Valencia | 49 |
| 10 | Real Sociedad | 46 |
| 11 | Espanyol | 46 |
| 12 | Athletic | 45 |
| 13 | Sevilla | 43 |
| 14 | Alavés | 43 |
| 15 | Elche | 43 |
| 16 | Levante | 42 |
| 17 | Osasuna | 42 |
| 18 | Mallorca | 42 |
| 19 | Girona | 41 |
| 20 | Oviedo | 29 |
How close was the relegation fight?
Six clubs finished within two points of each other, and three of them were level on 42. Only one of those three went down.
| Club | Pts | GD |
|---|---|---|
| Levante | 42 | −14 |
| Osasuna | 42 | −6 |
| Mallorca | 42 | −10 |
Read that table again: Mallorca had a better goal difference than Levante and was relegated, while Levante stayed up.
That is not an error. La Liga separates clubs level on points by head-to-head record first, then head-to-head goal difference, and only then overall goal difference. The Premier League does the opposite, starting with overall goal difference — which is why a Spanish relegation can look wrong to anyone reading it with English habits.
Oviedo, by contrast, were never in that conversation. They finished on 29 points, 13 behind the lowest club that stayed up, with a goal difference of −34.
Who was La Liga’s top scorer last season?
Kylian Mbappé, with 25 goals in 31 appearances — his second Pichichi in a row.
| Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| Kylian Mbappé | Real Madrid | 25 |
| Vedat Muriqi | Mallorca | 23 |
| Ante Budimir | Osasuna | 17 |
The runner-up is the detail worth keeping: Vedat Muriqi scored 23 for a team that was relegated. Mallorca went down with the second-highest scorer in Spain.
Mbappé’s two seasons at Real Madrid now read 56 goals in 65 league matches. Back-to-back Pichichis put him in company at the club that includes Di Stéfano, Puskás, Hugo Sánchez and Cristiano Ronaldo.
What has changed at Real Madrid?
José Mourinho is the manager. Real Madrid announced it on 11 June 2026, on a deal covering the next three seasons “until June 30, 2029”, with Mourinho joining on 13 July, the day pre-season began.
It is his second spell at the club; he previously managed them from 2010 to 2013, and arrives from Benfica.
For a club that finished eight points behind Barcelona with the league’s top scorer in its side, the appointment is the single biggest variable going into the new season — which is precisely why we are not going to tell you what it will produce.
When are the Clásicos?
25 October 2026 at Camp Nou, and 9 May 2027 at the Bernabéu. The second one falls three weekends before the season ends.
What is not settled yet?
The squads. The summer transfer window does not close until 1 September 2026, more than two weeks after the season starts. ESPN puts the deadline at 10.59pm BST, 5.59pm ET.
That is the honest caveat on any pre-season preview, including this one: clubs will play their opening fixtures with squads they are still assembling, and any list of signings written today is a snapshot with a short shelf life.
What is settled is everything above — the calendar, the 20 clubs, last season’s final table, and who scored the goals.
Bottom line
Barcelona start as champions on 94 points, Real Madrid start with Mourinho and the league’s top scorer, and three promoted clubs start against Villarreal, Elche and Atlético.
Last season’s most instructive fact is not at the top of the table but at the bottom of it: three clubs on 42 points, one of them relegated, and the club that went down had the better goal difference. If you want to know how the 2026-27 table will look, the only honest answer on 12 August is that 380 matches have not been played yet. For a match where the numbers are already in, our guide to the 2026 Super Cup covers one that has been played.
Sources
Read on 12 August 2026.
| Source | What it supports here |
|---|---|
| Sporting Life: La Liga 2025-26 final standings | The complete final table — every club’s played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against and points — which the arithmetic checks in the verification panel were run against |
| OneFootball: LaLiga 2026-27 calendar confirmed | The 15 August start, 30 May finish, 380 fixtures, both Clásico dates and venues, the 22 December to 2 January winter break, the four opening fixtures moved to 25-27 August and the reason, and the three clubs starting away by request |
| Real Madrid: official announcement on José Mourinho | The appointment on 11 June 2026, the three-season deal until 30 June 2029, and that he joined on 13 July |
| Real Madrid: Mbappé wins the Pichichi Trophy 2025-26 | Mbappé’s 25 goals in 31 matches, that it was a second consecutive Pichichi, and the 23 and 17 goals for Muriqi and Budimir |
| Goal: how competitions rank teams level on points | La Liga’s tiebreaker order — head-to-head points, then head-to-head goal difference, then overall goal difference — and the contrast with the Premier League |
| ESPN: when does the 2026 summer transfer window close | That La Liga’s window opened on 1 July 2026 and closes at 10.59pm BST / 5.59pm ET on Tuesday 1 September 2026 |
How we verified this
🚫 This article contains no predictions, no projected table and no tip for the Golden Boot. The brief asked for a predicted 20-team ranking and a top-scorer pick. The season had not kicked off when this was written, so there is no 2026-27 data to rank anything on, and forecasting a finishing order would be our invention rather than reporting. Instead this sets out what is already settled: the fixtures, the 20 clubs, last season’s final table, and last season’s Pichichi. No betting odds or prediction-market prices appear anywhere.
🔴 The 2025-26 final table was checked arithmetically before use, and that check caught a wrong table. One widely-syndicated “2025-26 standings” page was last updated on 10 May 2026 — the day Barcelona clinched, two weeks before the season ended. Its relegation places (Alavés, Levante, Oviedo) contradict the actual relegations, and it had Mbappé on 24 goals rather than his final 25. The table used here passes four checks instead: every club’s wins plus draws plus losses equals 38; every club’s points equal three times wins plus draws; every club’s goals for minus goals against equals its goal difference; and the league’s total goals for equals its total goals against at 1,024. A mid-season snapshot cannot satisfy the last one.
The head-to-head explanation is sourced, not inferred. La Liga’s tiebreaker order is head-to-head points, then head-to-head goal difference, then overall goal difference — the opposite priority to the Premier League, which starts with overall goal difference. That is why the three clubs tied on 42 points are not ordered by goal difference. This article does not state what any specific head-to-head result was, because those individual results were not checked.
⚠️ The final-table chart colours only the two bands that follow from finishing position. Champions League places and relegation are a direct function of where a club finished. European places below that are not: Real Sociedad reached the Europa League as Copa del Rey winners from tenth, and Getafe’s seventh place was a Conference League place rather than a Europa League one. Rather than imply a wrong mapping with a colour, those routes are described in the text.
Only three top scorers are listed because only three are confirmed. Real Madrid’s official Pichichi announcement names Mbappé on 25, Muriqi on 23 and Budimir on 17. The fuller scorer lists available to us came from the same mid-May snapshot that failed the table check, so no fourth or fifth place is given.
⚠️ Two of the six sources are soft 404s, so they were verified by content rather than status code. realmadrid.com returns HTTP 200 and a byte-identical 16,313-byte shell for a fabricated path and for both real announcements, so neither the status code nor the response size can tell them apart from the command line; both club pages were read through a fetch tool instead, and each returned its own distinct text — the appointment wording for one, the Pichichi figures for the other. Sporting Life also returns 200 for a fabricated season path, but with a visibly different and much smaller page than the real standings. The other sources return 200 for the cited page and 404 for a fabricated one on the same host.
Squad and transfer detail is deliberately thin. The window runs to the evening of 1 September 2026 — ESPN gives the deadline as 10.59pm BST, 5.59pm ET — so any list of signings written three days before the opening weekend would be incomplete and partly obsolete. The article says what is confirmed — the managerial change at Real Madrid, which is announced on the club’s own site — and flags the window rather than listing rumoured deals.