The list of 24 teams in the European Cup is released, who is the most regrettable to the unselected stars?

Football Newspaper

2024-06-09 09:38Posted on the official account of Guangdong Football News

Reporter Han Bing reported that at 6 o'clock on June 8, Beijing time, the 24-team roster for the 2024 Euro Cup was all released. As the second national team competition after the World Cup, it is natural that there will be a star-studded gathering, with 11 of the 13 European stars worth more than 100 million euros competing for the Delaunay Cup. In addition to Haaland (180 million) and Odegaard (110 million) who missed out on the finals due to their Norwegian team, there are also many superstars familiar to fans who missed the European Championship due to coaching preferences, injuries or personal factors, and the absence of these stars is also an irreparable deficiency for the European Championship.

Injuries and poor form are the main reasons that have affected the selection of these stars in the squad for the European Championships. Gavi, the European Golden Boy winner, who is the most expensive of the unselected stars (90 million euros), was torn in the European Cup qualifiers as early as November last year and had to recuperate for at least nine months, missing the European Championship early. France's main defender Lucas, who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals in early May, died with a serious injury one month before the start of the European Championship. In the 2022 World Cup, Lucas had ruptured the cruciate ligament in his right knee, and he only played 10 minutes in his World Cup debut.

German winger Gnabry suffered a muscle tear in the back of his thigh in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final and was reluctantly defeated. At the heart of the Italian defence, 36-year-old veteran Acerbi withdrew from the squad with a groin injury on the right side. Chelsea centre-back Disasi and striker Nkunku, who has just recovered from a hamstring injury, are also out of the France squad due to injury. Dutch midfielders Tibert and Delon, striker Zikelze, Portuguese full-back Guerrero and midfielder Otavio, England central defender Harry Maguire and wingback Reece James, Turkish defenders Seyunju, Kabak, striker Yunnar, and Real Madrid's Austrian captain central defender Alaba, are all victims of injuries. Harry Maguire, Seryunju and Alaba, who are at the heart of their respective teams' defences, have all had a significant impact on their respective teams' defensive capabilities due to injury.

Compared with injuries, there are also many stars who have missed the European Championship due to poor form. The most typical is England, the attackers Grealish, Rashford, Tottenham Hotspur Maddison, who once worth hundreds of millions of euros, and Henderson, the defender who returned to Europe from Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the year, were all abandoned by Southgate due to poor form. Spanish goalkeeper Kepa, midfielder Asensio and center forward G. Moreno, German defenders Jule and Coral and center forward Timo Werner, and Dutch wing-back Malacia were also unselected due to form. Portuguese midfielder Sanchez, who was a sensation at Euro 2016, was loaned to Roma in the second half of the game and had limited playing time, so there was no suspense that he was not selected.

In addition to being rejected due to injuries and poor form, it is also a pity that some players who were supposed to participate in the European Championship were abandoned due to fierce competition for tactical positions and the coach's "subjective choice". Villa centre-back Pau Torres and Tottenham full-back Porro are out of the Spanish squad, while Milan centre-back Fikayo Tomori, Borussia Dortmund left-back Maatsen (Netherlands), winter loan from Chelsea, attacking midfielder Brandt (Germany), Crystal Palace winger Olisse, Villa winger Moussa Diaby (France) and Belgian centre-forward Michy Batshuayi are all victims of the competition. It is worth mentioning that despite a number of in-form stars, France coach Didier Deschamps insisted on recruiting only 25 players, not the full 26, and refused to give these unsuccessful stars a compliant quota.

In addition to the fierce competition, the subjective preferences of the coaches also led to the defeat of some famous players. German fans are very puzzled by the loss of Hummels, the core of the defensive line who reached the Champions League final with the team, the captain midfielder Emre Can and Bayern midfielder Goretzka. Goretzka was reluctant to accept a substitute, while Hummels' age reasons for his defeat were even more unconvincing. England winger Jadon Sancho, who went on loan to Borussia Dortmund at the beginning of the year, and Italian midfielder Verratti, who joined the Saudi league, both gave up for subjective reasons other than their respective coaches' skills and tactics.

Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois's defeat was self-inflicted: in June last year, his national team's 100th milestone match against Austria, was dissatisfied with the coach not letting him captain, and returned to Madrid with a direct "strike" against Estonia in the second game. After missing the entire season after a cruciate ligament ruptured in August last year, and after voluntarily announcing that he would miss the European Championship at the end of last year, he publicly exposed the infighting in the Belgian team at the beginning of this year. Therefore, despite his good form after returning at the end of the season, and also winning the Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund to win the trophy for Real Madrid, he was still rejected by Belgium coach Tedesco on the grounds that he was "not physically ready". Of course, Italian midfielder Tonali, who was banned for violating betting rules, can be regarded as a typical example of self-inflicted.

Even more unusual is England right-back Ben White, who flew back to London for "personal reasons" due to a dispute with England assistant coach Holland at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022. He has been vocal about not liking the intra-squad experience at Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022 and is equally reluctant to be a substitute. England were called up several times since then, but Ben White refused to apply. became the most "rigid" one among the unselected stars in this European Cup.

View original image 145K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•