EURO 2024 — Young Players We Want to See Called Up (Groups D/E/F)
With national team coaches already announcing their final squads for Euro 2024, I thought I’d just hurry up and list my predictions.
So yeah, not much to add here other than my disappointment at not being able to provide a more in-depth analysis of the players I want to see listed in the final squad of each national team from Groups D, E and F.
As of this moment, France and Ukraine are the teams in these groups that have already posted their final squads, with the Netherlands being the only other which has announced a preliminary squad. Of these three, France surprised me the most as head coach Didier Deschamps ultimately decided to call up many of the same players that have featured in other international competitions. While a case can be made for his reliance on a proven, consistent French squad, it still feels like he did not make the most out of the squad extension rule as an opportunity to expose more young, talented players to the reality of the Euro tournament.
On the other hand, Ronald Koeman will be bringing to Germany plenty of future Dutch national team mainstays, including a couple of players I did not expect to be picked (but fully deserve it), such as Ian Maatsen and Bert Verbruggen. Ukraine will also feature a few younger players, though as a whole the Blue-and-Yellows continue to rely on several veterans to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive.
And without further ado, these are my picks for the squads in Groups D, E and F:
GROUP D
France
(Disappointed that most of my picks were not included, but good on Deschamps for calling up Bradley Barcola.)
Eduardo Camavinga
Warren Zaïre-Emery
Leny Yoro
Castello Lukeba
Elye Wahi
Georginio Rutter
Netherlands
(Overall great preliminary squad so far, though I fear the final cut will affect younger players mostly.
Also no Jorrel Hato? That’s an 18 year-old center-back starting for Ajax, closing in 3,000 minutes played in the Eredivisie this season — insane not to have him in the preliminary squad at the very least. Same goes for Zirkzee, having an absolutely sensational season at Serie A with underdogs Bologna FC.)
Xavi Simons
Joshua Zirkzee
Quinten Timber
Brian Brobbey
Ryan Gravenberch
Jorrel Hato
Poland
(Really excited to see Marczuk play in this Euro, great breakthrough season in the Ekstraklasa and totally deserving of being called up!)
Nicola Zalewski
Dominik Marczuk
Ariel Mosor
Filip Marchwiński
Mateusz Bogusz
Kacper Tobiasz
Austria
(Arguably one of the weakest squads in terms of future national team players, though I hope these guys make the cut for this Euro.)
Alexander Prass
Samson Baidoo
Leopold Querfeld
Nikolas Sattlberger
Yusuf Demir
GROUP E
Belgium
(Belgium is doing something wrong if they do not dominate this group with the amount of talent they have.)
Jérémy Doku
Johan Bakayoko
Arthur Vermeeren
Maarten Vandevoordt
Mario Stroeykens
Zeno Debast
Ukraine
(Glad to see Zabarnyi and Sudakov representing Ukraine. Hoping this team goes far in the tournament.)
Ilya Zabarnyi
Georgiy Sudakov
Ilya Kvasnytsya
Yegor Yarmolyuk
Romania
(For some reason I think most of these players will not be in the final squad — which is a shame, because Romania has some really talented youth that they could bring to the Euro.)
Radu Drăgușin
Rareș Ilie
Octavian Popescu
Andrei Borza
Enes Sali
Răzvan Sava
Slovakia
(Suslov is a given, but it would be nice to see the others get a chance to shine in Germany too. Marcelli has been having a great season with Slovan Bratislava and definitely deserves a debut with the senior national team.)
Tomáš Suslov
Adrian Kapralik
Mário Sauer
Nino Marcelli
GROUP F
Portugal
(It would be a pipe dream to get all these guys in the Portuguese final squad, but most of them have earned that spot. João Neves and Eduardo Quaresma have been two outstanding revelations this season and are much more deserving of a place in the callup than some of the more established players.)
Nuno Mendes
João Neves
Gonçalo Ramos
Gonçalo Inácio
Eduardo Quaresma
António Silva
Turkey
(Soooo much talent in these youngsters overall — but will they all be given the chance to play in Germany? Probably not. Do they all deserve to be in the final squad? Yes, they do.
Uzun has been a pleasant surprise at Nürnberg; Kılıçsoy has not disappointed as a 1st team Beşiktaş player this season. Özcan is an undisputed starter at age 18; Yıldız and Güler play in some of Europe’s best teams. I say bring them all!)
Can Uzun
Semih Kılıçsoy
Yasin Özcan
Kenan Yıldız
Arda Güler
Czech Republic
(Few but good, though there may well be room for more in the final squad.)
Adam Hložek
Martin Vitík
Matej Jurasek
Georgia
(A veteran team relying in a bunch of 23 year-olds — Kvaratskhelia, Mikautadze, Mamardashvili, Davitashvili and Tsitaishvili — to get past the group stage. Hopefully there will be two spots for my picks.)
Gabriel Sigua
Irakli Azarovi
