Deportrio topped the league phase during the regular season last year and were knocked out by eventual winners in SDS in the semi-final. They were pretty unfortunate in that semi-final, with SDS scraping through to the final where they beat MVPs United.

Deportrio have the best squad on paper. Players such as Josh Harrop, Henri Lansbury and Joleon Lescott offer proven quality, which will be invaluable at this level. We saw last year the value of having actual ex-professionals in your squad - Ciaran Clark was one of the best players in the Baller League last year and his quality shone through as an ex-pro.

Deportrio are headed up by Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge, two more ex-pro players who can help the side from the touchline. With the occasional madness of Baller League, I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of them take to the field at some point as well. 

Deportrio have the strongest squad in the Baller League field on paper and have recent experience in battling to finals night via topping the table. They can use this experience to appear in the final four again with the quality of players at their disposal.

Yanited also appeared at finals night in the 2025 Baller League season. They were expected to reach the final and set up a real battle with SDS United, but Yanited were beaten by MVPs, pretty convincingly, in the semi-final and will have to dust themselves down for this campaign.

Their squad looks pretty strong with Angry Ginge notably picking up Bryan Ly, who was the top scorer in Baller League last season with 21 goals. 

He was unfortunately playing for one of the weakest sides in the competition, but should have more success playing for a team like Yanited this time around. This is also notable as Yanited’s top scorer in Baller League last season was Tyler Winters with 13, so they have added goals to the side.

Yanited have managed to keep hold of PK Humble who was solid for them last campaign, and added Jesse Waller Lassen to the mix who really impressed at times, but again was playing for a side in M7 FC that never really looked like threatening the top four. 

It looks like Yanited’s approach has been to pick off the better performing players from some of the weaker sides to facilitate a more substantial push for the trophy.

NDL FC are a real wildcard heading into the 25/26 Baller League season with Niko Omilana heading up the side and always having something interesting up his sleeve. He’s already announced that he’s managed to recruit an ‘active Premier League player’ for his Baller League squad which will be announced on Monday. 

Niko has a history of bending the truth so we’ll see how true this actually is, but it would be a massive boost for NDL FC to have a player of that calibre in the squad. Even aside from that mystery player, NDL have one of the best players from last season’s Baller League in Ciaran Clark, who really impressed for Trebol FC last campaign - only narrowly missing out on a playoff spot.

They’ve also stolen Yanited’s top scorer from last campaign in Tyler Winters, which was a move that Niko took great delight in getting over the line. NDL are probably the most unpredictable of the sides in the Baller League field with Niko Omilana regularly coming up with plans to disrupt proceedings, but their squad has clear quality.