- 18 Comments
England are only two games away from winning the European Under-21 Championship twice.
On Wednesday (17:00 BST), Lee Carsley’s team, which defeated the Netherlands in the semi-final of the tournament in 2023, will face them.
At 20:00, Germany takes on France in the other semi.
Do the winners continue to be successful in their careers?
In the following 12 years, 10 of the 24 teams that won the European Under-21 Championship went on to win either the World Cup or the senior Euros.
Nine of those players were members of the impressive U21 squad.
Of course, Germany and England, who won in 2017 and 2021, have still time to do so.
In that same time frame, five more have advanced to the final but lost.
The U21 teams that have won the Euros and a significant tournament are:
What about the players who are successful?
29 players, including Laurent Blanc, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Totti, and Manuel Neuer, have won the U21 Euros and a significant senior tournament, according to the table above.
Many of the best players in the world have impressed at previous European Under-21 Championships, not to mention the winning team.
Rudi Voller, Blanc, Davor Suker, Luis Figo, Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo, Petr Cech, Juan Mata, Thiago, and Fabian Ruiz were just a few players who were honored with the “best player of the tournament” award.
There are a few false positives, though.
While Royston Drenthe only played once for the Netherlands, Renato Buso and Francesc Arnau, both of whom died, never won an Italian or Spanish senior cap. Fabio Vieira, 25, has not yet played for the senior Portugal team.
Although he never played for one of Europe’s top clubs, Sweden’s Marcus Berg had a successful goal-corcoring career.
More of a mixed bag of people are on the Golden Boot list.
Despite playing midfield, Andrea Pirlo, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Alberto Gilardino were among the previous winners.
However, it’s unlikely that Luca Waldschmidt, Jan Kliment, Maceo Rigters, or Massimo Maccarone will be the subjects of any statues.
What about the previous England champions?
England won the tournament in 1982, 1984 and 2023.
In 1984, Mark Hateley and Anthony Gordon were given the honors of player of the tournament.
None of those 1982 and 1984 squads were Three Lions legends, and neither one of them won a senior cap for England.
Hateley, who was on both teams, won 32 caps, with five more coming from teams with 10 or more.
Cole Palmer is the most notable of the 2023 winners, and six more were selected for England from Thomas Tuchel’s final year.
related subjects
- Football
Source: BBC
Leave a Reply