| Updated: Own goals remain one of football’s strangest and most damaging events. Unlike a missed chance or a defensive lapse that still leaves room for recovery, an own goal delivers immediate punishment, often changing the momentum of a match and placing a team under instant pressure. Across a full season, those moments can accumulate into a revealing pattern, showing which leagues and sides have been most vulnerable to these costly mistakes.
For this report, Sportingpedia analysed own goals across Europe’s top 7 leagues during the 2025/26 season, comparing both league-wide totals and team-level data to identify where these errors occur most often. The findings reveal the scale of the Premier League’s lead is striking: its 34 own goals match the combined totals of Serie A and La Liga, which both stand on 17, meaning the English top flight has produced exactly twice as many as either league on its own.
The report also reveals the four unluckiest teams so far this season. Brighton, Burnley, Wolverhampton and Wolfsburg have each scored 4 own goals, the joint-highest total among all clubs analysed. Three of those four teams come from the Premier League, reinforcing the league’s wider dominance in this unwanted category.
Leagues Ranked by the Number of Own Goals Scored in the 2025/26 Season
Data Source: FBREF
The Premier League stands clearly apart in this dataset. With 34 own goals, it records a significantly higher total than any other league, outpacing Ligue 1 and Liga Portugal by 14. This gap suggests a higher frequency of defensive errors or increased pressure situations within English football compared to its European counterparts.
Behind England, Ligue 1 and Liga Portugal share second place with 20 own goals each. The Bundesliga and Eredivisie follow closely with 18, while La Liga and Serie A register the lowest totals at 17. The relatively narrow spread between second and seventh highlights that, outside the Premier League, own goal frequency remains fairly consistent across Europe.
At team level, the concentration becomes even clearer. Brighton, Burnley and Wolverhampton each record 4 own goals, making the Premier League responsible for three of the four worst-performing teams in this category. Wolfsburg is the only non-English side to match that total, placing the Bundesliga club alongside the English trio at the top.
Just below them, Brentford and Fulham add to the Premier League’s presence with 3 own goals each, meaning five English clubs appear among the teams with the highest totals. Ligue 1 contributes Le Havre and Metz with 3 each, while Liga Portugal’s Arouca and Vitoria Guimaraes and the Eredivisie’s Fortuna Sittard and Go Ahead Eagles also reach that mark. Serie A’s only representative in this group is Verona.
Teams in Europe’s Top 7 Leagues with the Most Own Goals Scored in 2025/26 Season
Data Source: FBREF
A total of 37 teams across the seven leagues have scored at least 2 own goals, highlighting how widespread these errors are rather than being isolated to a few outliers.
The distribution of teams with multiple own goals further reinforces the Premier League’s position. In addition to its clubs with 3 or more, England also places five teams on 2 own goals – Newcastle, Manchester United, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and West Ham – giving it the largest overall representation across all tiers of the dataset.
La Liga shows a balanced spread with four teams on 2 own goals – Getafe, Levante, Mallorca and Valencia – but none reaching higher totals. Ligue 1 also places multiple teams in this range, including Marseille, Lyon, Lorient and Auxerre, while Serie A features Juventus, Sassuolo and Genoa.
The Bundesliga and Eredivisie display similar patterns, with several teams recording 2 own goals, including Augsburg, Borussia Monchengladbach and Mainz in Germany, and Ajax, Twente and Sparta Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Liga Portugal mirrors this distribution with Alverca, Estrela Amadora and Rio Ave.
Across Europe’s top leagues, own goals remain widely distributed rather than concentrated within a small group of teams. However, the Premier League clearly stands out both in total volume and in the number of clubs repeatedly involved, making it the most error-prone league in this category during the 2025/26 season.