The dust has settled on Spain’s magnificent victory at Euro 2024 and they will forever leave a mark as one of the best teams that the championships has ever seen. A class apart throughout the tournament, on their way to victory Spain managed to beat Italy, Croatia, Albania, Georgia, Germany, France and England, becoming the first side in European Championship history to win all of their matches enroute to glory.
Despite many Spanish players such as Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and Rodri all lighting up the tournament, there were several of Europe’s biggest stars who failed to fire when the lights were at their brightest.
With many players having left Germany wishing they had been able to contribute more, our football expert Aladár Kollár is on hand to provide his list of some of the worst performers at this summer’s European Championships.
The worst players of Euro 2024
Cristiano Ronaldo
At 39, Cristiano Ronaldo continues to defy father time and he led a hugely talented Portuguese team into yet another international tournament. Heading into Euro 2024, Portugal were amongst the heavy favorites due to their terrific performances in qualifying.Â
After playing through the group stage without finding the back of the net, pundits were starting to question Ronaldo’s presence in the side. Undeterred, Portuguese boss Roberto Martinez stuck with his talisman but his loyalty wouldn’t be rewarded.
With Ronaldo missing a host of chances against a stubborn Slovenian side in the last 16, Ronaldo’s frustrations would continue as he would miss a penalty in extra time. Although he would go onto score a penalty in the subsequent penalty shootout, he would fire another blank in Portugal’s quarter-final clash against France.
Portugal couldn’t repeat their feats from the penalty spot from the round before and a Joao Felix miss would prove costly as Portugal would exit the tournament early.
Upon their exit Ronaldo stated, ‘We wanted more. We deserved more. For us. For each and every one of you. For Portugal. We are grateful for all that you have given us and all that we have accomplished so far.‘Â
Set to be 41 by the time the World Cup comes around, it remains to be seen whether that is the last time we will see Ronaldo don a Portuguese shirt.
Reddit users are discussing the not-so-good performance of the footballer:
“Dude is 39 and whenever he is ever near the box has 2 defenders on him at all times. Even 29 year old top strikers get neutrlized that way pretty easy. The problem is that he is the only Portugal reference inside the box.“
Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe
For years, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe have been France’s leading lights and have helped France win the 2018 World Cup and reach the final of the World Cup in 2022.
With the French viewed as the favorites for outright victory, this French campaign will be looked back on with a sense of overwhelming disappointment. Mbappe himself said – “It was a failure. We had the ambition to be European champions. I had the ambition to be European champion. We aren’t that, so it’s a failure.“
Mbappe was supposed to take the tournament by storm but failed to get out of first gear. With his tournament off to a shocking start thanks to a broken nose in France’s narrow 1-0 victory over Austria, the new Real Madrid star was only able to find the back of the net once all tournament which came via the penalty spot in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Poland.
He would be limited in both the round of 16 and quarter finals against Belgium and Portugal and although he set up France’s goal in their semi final defeat against a Luis de la Fuente inspired Spain, he couldn’t provide a winning turn as France succumbed to a 2-1 defeat.
For the first time in his career, Mbappe failed to light up the international stage and its fair to say that he leaves Germany with a few questions to answer.
Harry Kane
It seems harsh to include Harry Kane on this list, but England’s all-time leading scorer looked a shadow of himself throughout the duration of the tournament.
Often saving his best when wearing an England shirt, England travelled to Germany with a host of stars which included Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones, Jordan Pickford, Jude Bellingham, Kyle Walker and the Premier League player of the year Phil Foden, many believed that Gareth Southgate and his team would finally end England’s long 58 year wait for major international glory.
Looking leggy throughout all of England’s group games, Kane was able to score the winner in England’s narrow extra time victory over Slovakia, but after delivering that magnificent moment, Kane’s involvement on the scoresheet would come to an end.
Upstaged by Ollie Watkin’s last-gasp goal against the Netherlands in the semi finals, Southgate resisted the urge to drop his captain for the final but he would keep giving the ball away and only lasted for the first fifteen minutes after half-time.
Looking short of fitness throughout, according to reports after the final, Kane was carrying an injury and was battling to keep himself fit throughout the tournament. Perhaps lucky to keep his place in England’s starting eleven, time is running out for Kane at international level and this could well be his last ever European Championships.
If able to make the squad for the World Cup in 2026, England will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy with many sites around the world including mightytips.hu – a review betting site, where people can find the best bookmakers. Set to be 33 by the time the tournament comes around, Kane will hope to exit the international scene on a high.
Romelu Lukaku
Although Belgium’s golden generation has come and gone, Belgium headed into this summer’s tournament with a talented squad and with high hopes of advancing deep into the knockout rounds.Â
Led by Manchester City stars, Jeremy Doku and Kevin DeBruyne, the goalscoring responsibilities firmly fell on the shoulders of Romelu Lukaku.
Despite having his detractors, Lukaku is Belgium’s leading scorer and has chipped in with several crucial goals whilst in a Red Devils shirt. However, he would struggle in this tournament and would end the tournament as a real contender to make the worst Euro 2024 XI.
With Belgium struggling to get through their group, they were faced with a tricky round of 16 tie against France and would end up losing 1-0.Â
Shackled for most of the match, Lukaku left Germany having not scored a single goal and having several ruled out due to him being offside.
Showcasing the best and worst of Belgium’s stuttering campaign, he heads back to Chelsea this summer looking to revive his career.
Kai Havertz
Kai Havertz enjoyed a mixed first season with Arsenal, taking a while to get into stride, he finished the season strongly and was Germany’s choice to lead the line.
Finding the back of the net in Germany’s opening game victory again]st Scotland, that would be the first and last time that he would find the back of the net and he would have to play second fiddle to Bayern Munich midfielder Jamal Musiala.Â
Having helped Germany reach the quarter-finals, Havertz enjoyed a frustrating day in front of goal and couldn’t do anything to prevent Germany falling 2-1 5o eventual winners Spain.Â
No player in the Germany squad had racked up as high a XG as Havertz and he would have been massively disappointed to have left the tournament with just one goal.
Alexsandr Mitrovic
Drawn in Group C alongside England and Slovakia, many felt that Serbia had the capacity to be the dark horses of this summer’s tournament. Captained by all-time leading scorer Alexsandr Mitrovic, the frontman headed into the tournament fresh off the back of scoring forty goals in the Saudi Pro League but was unable to back up those performances this summer.
With Serbia crashing out of the group stage and scoring just one goal, Mitrovic was a bit of a non factor in front of goal and would have hoped for more.Â
Serbia contains a very talented team and Mitrovic will hope that both he and his team will be back for more at the World Cup in two years time.
A Euros that won’t live long in the memory
This summer’s tournament was strange in many ways. Whilst nobody can deny that Spain were the best team in the tournament, it was a shame that several of European football’s biggest stars failed to show up.
The tournament saw a low amount of goals and at times the football was accused of being slightly robotic. There will be high hopes that the world’s best will come to the fore for the 2026 World Cup, but for now it is Spain who are the rightful Kings of Europe.
