Our Golazo 100 is ready and – as if we planned it ourselves – you will go through and discuss the final list, just a few days before the biggest football tournament of the summer starts. Yes, the Copa America may still have plenty of big games to come, but sheer star power simply won’t beat the European Championships, which start on Friday.
A total of 59 of the Golazo 100 will take the field in the tournament, a number that would be a lot higher if not for the surprising absence of Norway (who have Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard in our top 20). ) and Sweden. And while the tournament isn’t quite the brutal showdown between some of the world’s best national sides that it was in the eight or even 16 team versions, the Euro 2024 group stages will still see some early encounters between top talent. .
In the third match of the tournament, six Spanish representatives of the Golazo 100, including Rodri in fifth place, will take on a Croatian team led by Luka Modric (No. 40) with the young Josko Gvardiol (No. 51) on the defensive. Virgil van Dijk (No. 21) will get the chance to prove why he was the world’s top-ranked centre-back in a group stage when the Netherlands first face Robert Lewandowski’s (No. 19) Poland and then the combined talents of Antoine Griezmann (No. .13), Kylian Mbappé (No.1) and the rest of France attack.
All that and England will launch an attack four players from the top 11 of our rankings. The stars will be very much in evidence at the European Championships, here are three that could be among the most intriguing:
1. Harry Kane, England
Almost all of England’s attack has something to do with Euro 2024. Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden could prove they are the next big S-stars of the Premier League and beyond, with the latter still needing to do some work on the translation front. its club form to the international stage. If Jude Bellingham plays an outsized role in England winning their first major tournament in 58 years, then the Champions League and La Liga winner could immediately become the favorite to win the Ballon d’Or, depending how his Real Madrid teammate Vinicius Junior is doing in the Copa América.
But as has been the case in every major tournament England have played in over the last thirty years, barring 2002, it’s all about the star striker. Harry Kane still needs that trophy and is still as capable as anyone in Gareth Southgate’s side to make a difference in key moments. He will score goals with the same regularity as in his 91 international matches. During that time he scored 63 goals. No one else on this team has reached 12 yet.
The Bundesliga’s top scorer should be comfortable on German soil, but everyone else hears that ticking clock, the soon-to-be 31-year-old who may now be at his peak but whose remaining elite-level international tournaments are dwindling. If he doesn’t do that now, will he still be the same player in North America in two summers? Even in an era where the best of the best maintain their level into their 30s, could Kane lead England to glory on home soil in 2028?
Now it’s time for the Three Lions’ record goalscorer. Never before has he been surrounded by such elite talent. If he wants to drop deep, it doesn’t matter, Jude Bellingham has proven he’s comfortable on the edge of an attack. Phil Foden would also love to attack the space he frees up. Those two, Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze, Trent Alexander-Arnold: that makes for the best supply line Kane has ever had. If he delivers and takes England all the way, immortality beckons.
2. Florian Wirtz, Germany
A somewhat unknown German collective welcoming the best the world has to offer to their country, at a time when few would expect them to make a big mark on the tournament? We’ve seen that script before in 2006, the year in which Die Mannschaft came so close to a World Cup final with Jurgen Klinsmann in the dugout. This time they have perhaps the best coach in the field in Julian Nagelsmann, with hopes steadily growing after impressive results in pre-tournament friendlies. This could be a team that is doing even better than it was 18 years ago.
If that is the case, Florian Wirtz is as well placed to be the face of the German cause as anyone else. The 21-year-old, star of Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten domestic season and Bundesliga player of the season, still isn’t quite getting the hype he deserves, again a lot for a player whose 15th place finish in the Golazo 100 earned him between Bernardo Silva and Declan Rice. In 49 club games last season, Wirtz delivered 18 goals and 19 assists, good for an average goal contribution per 93.4 minutes. For the national team he played a brilliant opener in a 2-0 win over France, a match in which he looked all the more effective with Toni Kroos in the supply line behind him.
The only compelling reason you can think of why Wirtz might not be the face of this tournament is the other No. 10 Nagelsmann can field, Jamal Musiala (No. 18 on the Golazo 100). These two are the archetype of the new German football: technically excellent, fearless with the ball at their feet and diligent when the opponent has possession. Either way, the future of any team with these two looks iridescently bright. The present can be that too.
3. Alessandro Bastoni, Italy
Both Kane and Wirtz have an advantage as players to watch at Euro 2024: they will both likely hang around Germany for a while. The group stage draw was favorable for both sides, who avoided the kind of big beasts that can often face each other in this tournament. Holders Italy have not been so lucky against Spain and Croatia, with even their opening match against Albania presenting quite a headache given the pressure that will be on them not to slip behind the eight ball in Group B.
The three years since their surprise victory at Euro 2020 have not been kind to the Azzurri Many of those who shone at the last tournament retired (Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci the most notable) or reduced the powers of the players they were that remarkable summer. If Italy is going to achieve something special, it will be through a new generation. Few of them look as ready to excel this summer as Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni (No. 67 on the Golazo 100). The reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Serie A, which is part of the 2020 Euros, will now be tasked with putting together a backline that will ensure low-scoring matches to cover up the relative weaknesses of the Italian frontline to soften.
If Luciano Spalletti uses Bastoni wisely, he will look to utilize more than just his numerous defensive qualities. As Francesco Porzio noted in his profile of the 25-year-old: “Not only is he one of the most influential defenders of this era, he is a playmaker who plays on the left of a back three, an assist man and also a goalscorer when he gets the chance.”
