Euro 2024: Key statistics and highlights from Germany's big tournament
From June 14 to July 14, the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship will take place in 10 cities across Germany. The tournament will feature 24 teams, with 622 players from 219 clubs. The most senior player is 41 years old, and the youngest has yet to 17. Kazinform News Agency correspondent will highlight some of the most extraordinary statistics of the upcoming Euro.
One week before the start of the European Championship, all teams finalized their official rosters for the tournament. A few players, who were initially taken to the training camps in anticipation of the tournament, were removed from the squads. Now, there are 622 players from 219 clubs.
Among the Euro 2024 participants, 114 football players are based in England, slightly fewer -104 - in Italy, and the fields of Germany will be familiar to 80 players. Several footballers are under contract with clubs outside of Europe, such as in Saudi Arabia (14 players), the USA (7), the UAE (2), South Korea (2), Qatar (1), and Iran (1).
All players from the national teams of Denmark and Albania play outside their home leagues: the Danes play in seven countries (11 players in England), while Albanian footballers have contracts in 13 countries (10 in Italy).
For comparison, in the English national team, only Jude Bellingham from Real Madrid and Harry Kane from Bayern Munich play outside the Premier League. In the Italian squad, only three players play outside Serie A: Jorginho from Arsenal, Guglielmo Vicario from Tottenham, and Gianluigi Donnarumma from PSG.
The teams with the most players at the Euros are last season's champions: Germany will see 13 players each from Premier League champions Manchester City and Serie A champions Inter Milan. PSG, Real Madrid, and Barcelona each sent 12 players to the tournament.
At the Euros in Germany, an unprecedented 29 football players over the age of 35 will participate, setting a new record. This is a significant increase from the previous tournament in 2021, which featured only 14 players in this age group.
The teams participating in the opening match of Euro 2024, Scotland and Germany have the oldest squads in the tournament, with an average age of 28.2 and 28.1, respectively. Poland rounds out the top three oldest teams with an average age of 27.8. The Czech Republic has the youngest squad with an average age of 25.3 years, followed by Türkiye (25.8) and England (26.1).
Until now, the oldest player to have ever participated in the European Championship was Hungarian goalkeeper Gábor Király. He surpassed Lothar Matthäus, who held this title for 16 years, by playing in Euro 2016 at the age of 40 years and 86 days. However, this record might not be maintained by Király. The Portuguese squad includes defender Pepe, who turned 41 in February.
The second oldest player at Euro 2024 will be another Portuguese, Cristiano Ronaldo (39 years old), who plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. The trio is completed by Real Madrid's midfielder Luka Modrić, who was born seven months after Ronaldo. The top ten also includes Jesús Navas (Spain), Giorgi Loria (Georgia), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Olivier Giroud (France), Peter Pekarík (Slovakia), Kasper Schmeichel (Denmark), and Juraj Kucka (Slovakia).
Kacper Kozłowski from Poland became the youngest player in European Championship history when he played against Spain at Euro 2020, aged 17 years and 246 days. His record might be broken at the tournament in Germany by Spain's young talent, Lamine Yamal. If Yamal plays, he could become the first 16-year-old to participate in the European Championship, as he turns 17 the day before the final. Yamal debuted for Barcelona at 15 during the 2022/2023 season, becoming the club's youngest player in over a century since Paulino Alcántara in 1912.
The most experienced player in the upcoming Euro is Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who has participated in 25 matches across five European championships. Following him is his teammate Pepe, who has played 19 games. Germans Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer have each participated in 15 Euro matches.
Among the active participants in the Euro in Germany, Ronaldo also holds the record for most goals scored in the championship - 14. He is followed by Frenchman Antoine Griezmann with 7 goals, and Belgian Romelu Lukaku and Spaniard Álvaro Morata, both with 6 goals each.
The most expensive players at the tournament are Jude Bellingham from the England team and Kylian Mbappé from the French team, both valued at €180 million. Following Mbappé's contract agreement with Real Madrid, both will arrive in Germany as players of the Madrid club. The total market value of all players at Euro 2024 is €11.46 billion.
The tallest player at the Euros in Germany is Vanja Milinković-Savić, a 27-year-old Serbian goalkeeper who plays for Torino and is the younger brother of Serbian star Sergej Milinković-Savić. Vanja, who stands at 2.02 meters, has been on the Serbian national team since 2021 and has played 19 games. The shortest players at Euro 2024, each at 1.68 meters tall, are Romano Schmid from Austria and Stanislav Lobotka from Slovakia.
