Under Maintenance
We deeply apologize for interrupting your reading but Vendetta is currently undergoing some important maintenance! You may experience some layout shifts, slow loading times and dififculties in navigating.
Euro 2024 is finally here! The wait is over and we can at last watch Europe’s best take to the pitch. Players like Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane are sure to garner much of the attention, but international tournaments like this also leave room for the next generation to shine.
Below, we will highlight three young players who are set to make a splash at this summer’s Euro. All of these players are below the age of 23, and before we hop into it, yes we recognize that there are plenty of qualified candidates who will be left off of this three-man list.
Without further ado, let’s hop into it!
It feels like he has been around forever due to the constant media attention he has received ever since his academy days at La Masia, but the Netherlands’s Xavi Simons is still just 21 years old. Although he made the Dutch squad for the 2022 World Cup, this will be his first Euro, and the PSG man on loan at RB Leipzig is going to look to make a splash.
Simons is incredibly technical, has explosive pace and can play in a variety of attacking positions for the Dutch. He showed his quality this season for Leipzig in the Bundesliga, scoring eight goals and providing 11 a team-high 11 assists on a team that qualified for next year’s Champions League.
Expect to see Simons have a “break out” tournament this summer and for him to play a vital role in the Dutch attack.
The fact that there is a 16-year-old playing professional soccer is crazy. What’s even crazier is that there is a 16-year-old who is starting at Barcelona and already has seven caps for the Spanish national team. That 16-year-old is Lamine Yamal.
Watching Yamal play is so much fun. He is so pacy and so confident, always looking to take on opposition defenders, and, more than often, he beats them. For a 16-year-old to be as good as he is is ridiculous, and it is going to be exciting watching him run down the right-hand side of the Spanish attack just as he does for Barcelona.
Expect to see good things from Yamal. He is every outside back’s worst nightmare when he is running at them, and expect the 16-year-old to have a big tournament for Spain.
Surprise! You are getting four players instead of three, and the reason for this is that it is so hard to decide between these two since they will both be incredibly important for Germany‘s chances of success, so let’s just focus on both of them!
Jamal Musiala has an inhuman ability to keep the ball at his feet. It seems that the Bayern man can dribble through an entire team and he deserves his nickname “Bambi” for his world-class dribbling ability. At 21 years of age, he is already considered to be one of the best players in the world and has already made 29 appearances for Germany. This should be his breakout tournament to show everyone how good he really is.
Also, 21 years old, Florian Wirtz is already a Bayer Leverkusen legend. He led his club to its first-ever Bundesliga title this year and will now be hoping to lead Germany to a European Championship title as well.
Wirtz can play anywhere in the German attacking midfield, and with his creativity and vision to create attacking opportunities for his teammates and himself, Wirtz will play a massive role in Germany’s success this summer.
What do you think? Do you agree with who we have on this list or should other players have been included over these four? Let us know below and enjoy Euro 2024!
SUBSCRIBE to the Vendetta YouTube Channel!
CLICK HERE for more soccer content!