The 42

NEWLY-CROWNED ALL-IRELAND champions Kerry lead the way with eight representatives on The Sunday Game’s Football Team of the Year, including the RTÉ panel’s Footballer of the Year, David Clifford.

The Kingdom lifted their 39th All-Ireland title after a dominant 1-26 to 0-19 win over Donegal.

Runners-up Donegal have four representatives on the team, while semi-finalists Meath and Tyrone and 2024 champions Armagh have one apiece.

David Clifford got the Footballer of the Year nod, the Fossa sensation scoring 0-9 (3 2pt scores from play) today to bring his championship tally to 8-62.

David Clifford is the #SundayGame Footballer of the Year for 2025

Tomás Ó Sé and the panel explain why the Kerry talisman deserves the honour pic.twitter.com/vovpA7lWT8

— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 27, 2025

“David Clifford is Footballer of the Year, and there’ll be no veering away from that,” Kerry great Tomás Ó Sé said on behalf of The Sunday Game All-Ireland football final panel.

“He’s just on a different level from everybody else. 

“Early on in the season when things weren’t going well, David Clifford was still performing. You even go back to the Meath game, they were destroyed on breaking ball, on kickouts, on hunger, yet when the ball actually got in, he was still doing damage. He was just at it, at the right level, all year long. 

“He was the guy that was like The Pied Piper. The Kerry people are too busy taking money in the middle of the summer to be going up to Dublin, they don’t travel for quarter-finals. He came out, people do listen to him. He was celebrating, he brought them along with them. He’s obviously a leader in the dressing room.

“I think this year will be his third Footballer of the Year, he’s really smoked it!”

Ó Sé was joined by Mark McHugh, Cora Staunton, Ciarán Whelan, Paul Flynn and Enda McGinley on The Sunday Game panel tonight. 

The Sunday Game Football Team of the Year 2025

1. Shane Ryan (Kerry)

2. Seán Rafferty (Meath), 3. Jason Foley (Kerry), 4. Brendan McCole (Donegal)

5. Brian Ó Beaglaoich (Kerry), 6. Gavin White (Kerry), 7. Kieran McGeary (Tyrone)

8. Joe O’Connor (Kerry), 9. Michael Langan (Donegal)

10. Seán O’Shea (Kerry), 11. Paudie Clifford (Kerry), 12. Oisín Conaty (Armagh)

13. David Clifford (Kerry), 14. Michael Murphy (Donegal), 15. Conor O’Donnell (Donegal).

Footballer of the Year: David Clifford.

*****

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Written by Emma Duffy and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.