Much has been made about the legendary veterans of the game still going strong at Euro 2024. Cristiano Ronaldo, 39 years young, remains one of the favourites among the football betting sites to bring home the Golden Boot trophy awarded to the highest scorer at the tournament. And when casting your eye down the list of Best Player of the Tournament contenders, there are plenty of old heads to be seen, including Toni Kroos, Ronaldo and Kevin de Bruyne, to name but three.
But focussing on the experienced old pros could well be the wrong tactic in what is already promising to be the Euros of the young gun. Among those same Golden Boot tips you will also find the likes of Kylian Mbappe – at 25 certainly no old timer – Jude Bellingham (20), and German 21-year-olds Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz. And when you start to dig a bit deeper, it really becomes apparent that the kids really could be ruling the roost at these intriguing Euro Finals in Germany.
Young Players Making Their Mark
These Euros have already made history by featuring the youngest ever player at a European Football Championship Finals. Spain’s Lamine Yamal is only 16 years old but has become a regular at club Barcelona and gave a scintillating performance in Spain’s opening victory over Croatia in Germany, grabbing an assist along the way.
But other notable records in the first few days of the competition saw Hungary’s Dominik Szoboszlai become the youngest captain at the Finals event (23 years and 234 days) while Italy, renowned for experienced professionals, put out an 11 against Albania that had the youngest average age (26 years and 287 days) of any Italian team at the Euros since 1988. Perhaps that could explain Albania scoring after only 23 seconds in that match!
Young Contenders
As well as young players looking to make their mark on the top scorer charts, there are also plenty of inexperienced internationals who could well end up making history as the Player of the Tournament. Indeed, it’s worth comparing the sports betting sites’ tips for both the Player of the Tournament and the Young Player of the Tournament award, with a handful of players featuring on both lists.
Chief among them is England’s Jude Bellingham, fresh off the back of a stunning first season at Real Madrid where the player was able to win both La Liga and the Champions League. Bellingham was again sensational in his country’s opening win over Serbia, scoring the only goal of the game, and he leads both the Best Player and Best Young Player betting lists. Musiala and Wirtz also feature in the top ten of the main Best Player list, while 24-year-old Phil Foden of England and France’s Mbappe are also among the contenders.
Young Player of the Tournament
UEFA hosts a Young Player of the Tournament award and we have already mentioned most of the main contenders here, including Bellingham, Musiala, Wirtz and Yamal. But these players are joined by some other incredible talent, including Spain and Barcelona’s Pedri (21), two Real Madrid players in the shape of France’s Eduardo Camavinga (21) and Turkey’s Arda Guler (19), as well as Manchester City and Belgium’s Jeremy Doku (22), PSG and Netherlands’ Xavi Simons (21), Athletic Bilbao and Spain’s Nico Williams (21) and PSG and France’s Warren Zaire-Emery (18).
England pair Cole Palmer (22) and Kobbie Mainoo (19) are also featured, and what really reinforces the fact that this could be the tournament of the young prodigy is that nearly all of those players mentioned are starters for their countries, or at least often-used substitutes, despite their formative years. Coaches at the tournament seem more willing than ever to place their faith in young talent, much to the delight of the watching supporters
Not Just on the Pitch
We only have to cast our eyes to the dugout to see that it’s not just on the pitch where youth is having an impact on these Euros. Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann is only 36 years old, far younger than the likes of Ronaldo and Pepe (43), key players for Portugal, as well as Luka Modric (38) of Croatia.
Indeed, Nagelsmann is younger than his own goalkeeper at the tournament, Bayern Munich legend Manuel Neuer, who is 38 years young. That’s the same age as Belgium head coach Domenico Tedesco.
Interestingly, the youngest ever coach to win a Euros is Spain’s Jose Villalonga, who was 44 when his country landed the 1964 title. The youngest ever coach to reach the final was the USSR’s Konstantin Beskov, whose side was vanquished in that very same final. Clearly both Nagelsmann and Tedesco would shatter some records if either of their sides reach the final here in Germany.