2025/26 Loan Season Review: Talents Shine Across Europe
The 2025/26 season scattered the club’s talent across Europe and beyond, and many of them made sure they were noticed.
Some used their loans to launch title bids. Others simply fought for minutes, or clung to survival in the lower leagues. Taken together, it was a year that hardened a generation.
Kiwior leads a title charge
No loan shone brighter than Jakub Kiwior’s at Porto. Dropped into the heart of a defence expected to win, he didn’t just cope – he became a constant. Twenty-six league appearances in a Primeira Liga-winning campaign, and a place in the division’s Team of the Season, tell the story of a defender who grew into the shirt.
He added eight Europa League outings and five more in the Taca de Portugal, while continuing to turn out for Poland. Porto have seen enough: he joins them permanently in July.
Vieira, Nelson and Nwaneri make their case
Fabio Vieira rebuilt his rhythm in Hamburg. Across 31 games in all competitions, he scored seven and set up six, knitting together a young side with his left foot. One moment stood out: a cool penalty in January, opening the scoring against Bayern Munich and underlining his taste for the big stage.
Back in England, Reiss Nelson needed a spark and found it immediately at Brentford. On his debut, he produced a goal and an assist in a 5-0 Carabao Cup demolition of Grimsby Town in October. He finished the season with 14 appearances for the Bees, 10 of them in the Premier League, as he chased rhythm and relevance in a new system.
Across the Channel, Ethan Nwaneri took a bold step at Marseille. Eleven appearances, two goals, one assist – modest numbers, but wrapped in big moments. His first Ligue 1 goal arrived on debut in a 3-1 win over Lens at the Velodrome. The progress did not go unnoticed: he earned his first senior England call-up and sat on the bench for a 1-0 win over New Zealand.
Oleksandr Zinchenko’s year split in two. He featured sparingly for Nottingham Forest – five Premier League games, plus outings in the Europa League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup – but still wrote a small piece of history as the first Ukrainian to play for the club. By mid-season, he moved permanently to Ajax, swapping a relegation scrap for a different kind of pressure.
Goalkeeper Karl Hein endured a stop-start campaign in the Bundesliga. He played twice early on, both against Bayern Munich while at St. Pauli, then watched much of the season from the bench before a thumb injury curtailed his involvement. For Estonia, though, he remained a pillar, captaining his country and helping them to a 1-0 friendly win over Faroe Islands.
Women’s loans: goals, silverware and setbacks
On the women’s side, Rosa Kafaji quietly built a solid body of work at Brighton & Hove Albion, making 24 appearances in all competitions and scoring twice as she adapted to the rhythm of English football.
Michelle Agyemang started brightly in the same colours, scoring once in five Barclays Women’s Super League games, only for an ACL injury to cut short her season and her loan. A promising campaign stopped in an instant.
Jenna Nighswonger offered a different kind of contribution at Aston Villa. Eight WSL appearances brought one assist, but also valuable minutes in a side trying to climb the table.
Drop down a tier and the story becomes more ruthless. Jessie Gale split her year between Portsmouth and Bristol City and had no trouble finding the net. Across 27 matches in all competitions, she scored nine and laid on two, proving that wherever she went, the goal followed.
Vivienne Lia’s season took her from Nottingham Forest to Sweden. She played 12 times for Forest in all competitions before heading to Hammarby IF on loan, where she helped them lift the Svenska Cupen against BK Hacken. She added one goal in 10 games for the Swedish side, but the medal spoke loudest.
Laila Harbert’s year spanned two continents. She began in the NWSL with Portland Thorns, making five appearances, then returned to England in January to join Everton. There, she featured once in the WSL, thrown into a meeting with Chelsea.
Madison Earl used her loan to leave a mark in the cups. At Ipswich Town she played eight times and scored her first goal for The Tractor Girls in an FA Cup third round win over AFC Portchester, adding two assists and collecting the Player of the Round award. By January she was in Scotland with Glasgow City, debuting in a 4-0 win over Partick Thistle in the SWPL 1.
Naomi Williams logged three starts in the Subway Women’s League Cup for Bristol City, while Cecily Wellesley-Smith split her season between Leicester City and Sweden. She debuted for Leicester in the League Cup against Ipswich Town before moving to FC Rosengard, where she headed in her first goal in a 3-0 win over Vaxjo DFF to close out the Svenska Cupen campaign on a high. Two goals in 11 games underlined her growing presence.
Academy prospects in the grind
The men’s academy loanees lived in a different world: long trips, heavy pitches, and the constant threat of relegation.
Ismeal Kabia embraced it. At Shrewsbury Town he became a fixture, making 43 appearances in all competitions, scoring three and supplying two assists as the club clung to their League Two status. The numbers only hint at his impact. A late leveller against Sutton United in the FA Cup turned heads, but an even more dramatic moment followed: a long-range screamer in the 96th minute to snatch a 2-2 draw with Fleetwood Town. Week after week, he was one of the first names on the teamsheet and usually stayed on for the full 90.
In Sweden, Charles Sagoe Jr made his own impression at Kalmar FF. Across the Allsvenskan and Svenska Cupen he played 12 times, scoring twice and setting up five more, a sharp return for a wide player bedding into a new league.
Back in League Two, Maldini Kacurri’s season at Morecambe showed why clubs value defenders who can do a bit of everything. He played 18 times, scored once, provided one assist and regularly completed the full match before earning a permanent move to Grimsby Town. Twice he walked away with Morecambe’s Player of the Month award – rare recognition for a loanee at the back.
In Denmark, goalkeeper Lucas Nygaard took on the pressure of a relegation fight with Brabrand IF. He made 12 appearances in the second division as they finished fourth in Group B and then battled through a series of play-off fixtures. When the season tightened, he responded, keeping two clean sheets in the decisive run as Brabrand avoided the drop by seven points.
Louie Copley picked up valuable League Two experience at Crawley Town, making nine appearances and registering one assist. Harrison Dudziak stepped into senior football with Braintree Town, playing five National League games in midfield across December and January.
William Sweet found his platform in the National League South with Dagenham & Redbridge. Ten appearances, one goal – but what a goal: the winner in a 1-0 victory away to Chesham United, the kind of strike that lingers in a manager’s mind when the next team sheet is drawn up.
From Porto’s title parades to cold Tuesday nights in League Two, these loans asked hard questions of every player involved. The real test now is simple: who turns those scattered experiences into a permanent place at the top table?
