Gameseek: Top football stars to watch at the European Football Championship

The European Football Championship is in full swing these days. 24 teams compete in 11 European cities for the big trophy. The buzz around the tournament and the players is ever growing – from constantly expanding fan base, to new video games and even online slots as www.gameseek.co.uk mentions.

Fans are always eager to follow the top stars in the football world – so let’s see which are the football players worth watching this year.

ROMELU LUKAKU – BELGIUM

The Belgian team is undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in the world in general, but their results at this stage do not meet expectations. After the team’s loss from  Wales in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, Belgium reached the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup, but even that is not satisfactory enough for Belgium’s ambitious team. If it wants to take the next step in its future growth, the team needs star strikers like Romelu Lukaku.

If we take into account the 2020/21 season, then Romelu Lukaku is in his best shape. With 24 goals in Serie A, Lukaku recalled his time at Everton when in 2016/17 he scored 25 goals in one campaign. The statistics, however shows that Lukaku has become an even more threatening striker for enemy defenses. He has scored more goals from the game as he improved the quality of the positions from which he fired. Since signing with Inter in the 2019/20 season, Lukaku has scored 64 goals. For this period he is one of only seven players to score 60+ goals in the top 5 European Championships. Lukaku’s good play is also transferred to the national team, as he has scored 18 goals in 14 matches since the 2018 World Cup.

MANUEL LOCATELLI  – ITALY

The work of Roberto Mancini at the head of Italy’s team, for some reason, does not get the necessary attention, but the Azzurri are in a series of 25 games without a victory and are aiming to something big at Euro 2020. Despite the failures of the last two big tournaments now team Italy has a lot of quality, and one of Mancini’s players deserves our attention.

Manuel Locatelli reminds the Italians of the times when Andrea Pirlo played. It was Pirlo who was at the root of Italy reaching  the final of Euro 2012. During the season Locatelli proved to be one of the best passers and only five players from the top European championships surpassed his 2749 accurate passes this season.

CRISTIANO RONALDO – PORTUGAL

The Juventus striker has already built a legendary image at all European championships. He is a match record holder (21) and only one goal is needed to overtake Michel Platini and become the sole goal scorer. Ronaldo had another strong season at the individual level, becoming the top scorer in Serie A with 29 goals. This made him the first player to become a top scorer in

Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. In addition, Ronaldo is the first player in

the history of Juventus, who scored 100 goals in his first three seasons.

BURAK YILMAZ – TURKEY

After the disappointing performance of Euro 2016, the Turkish team is ambitious to go further in this year’s championship. Şenol Güneş is an experienced coach who managed to create a team with a stable defense, a creative midfield and the most important thing is that he has a top goal scorer like Burak Yilmaz. Yilmaz did not make much of a contribution to Turkey’s Euro 2020 ranking, but in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, played earlier in the year, he impressed with his performance, hitting a hat-trick in the door of the Netherlands. Turkey’s captain is the oldest player on the team and is in perhaps in the best shape of his career.

THIBAUT COURTOIS- BELGIUM

There is hardly any doubt that Thibaut Courtois is the best goalkeeper of this year European Championship, especially when Slovenian guard Jan Oblak is absent from the Slovenian team. It was Atletico Madrid that won La Liga, but Courtois also had a great season at Real and will hope for success with  the ambitious team of Belgium. The successful season for Courtois is characterized by 21 dry nets in all tournaments, as only one goalkeeper recorded more dry nets than him in La Liga. Statistics regarding the saves shows that Courtois is in the top 3 of the goalkeepers in the top 5 European Championships, which have played 30+ matches this season. If Belgium wants to win Euro 2020, it will definitely need Courtois’ skills.

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