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Going into Euro 2024, one big discussion point was how the players who had transferred to the Saudi Pro League (SPL) would fare.
Concerns over the level and intensity of games in Saudi Arabia led to suggestions that the players would struggle to find their rhythm at the tournament. Even Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrović, who plays for Al Hilal, admitted to Sky last month that “the physicality of the league, of the players, the tempo of the game, is different.”
As a result, the performances of each SPL star — including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), N’Golo Kanté (France) and Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands) — were under the microscope in Germany. So how did all 14 get on? We’ve tracked and rated those who represented their nations at Euro 2024 and divided them into three categories: the good, the bad and the indifferent.
THE BAD
Cristiano Ronaldo, ST, Al Nassr / Portugal
Minutes played: 485 of a possible 510
There’s no getting around it: This was a tournament that did not go to plan for Ronaldo as Portugal went out in the quarterfinals.
The 39-year-old striker took 23 shots over the course of five games, including a penalty, and missed every one of them. The xG (expected goals) value of those shots was 3.5, making him the biggest underperformer in front of goal at the tournament. At one point the struggle overwhelmed him, leaving him in tears in extra time of Portugal vs. Slovenia.
He did play a lot — more than any other Portugal outfielder in fact, as he was the only established starter to play the third group game when qualification for the knockouts had already been cemented — but he didn’t run a lot and tried to keep himself sharp for the chances that fell his way.
Jack Hendry, CB, Al Ettifaq / Scotland
Minutes played: 261 of a possible 270
Scotland were arguably the worst team at Euro 2024, starting with a 5-1 defeat to Germany and ending with two defeats and one draw, so Hendry’s scope to impress was limited. He can at least point to the fact that his conditioning was no problem — he started all three games and played 80-plus minutes in each — and, unlike some of his teammates, he didn’t make any severe blunders.
Sadly, if that’s the most positive you can be about a player, he ends up in the bad category.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, CM, Al Hilal / Serbia
Minutes played: 121 of a possible 270
Milinkovic-Savic came roaring out of the blocks, playing the full 90 minutes against England in the first game and covering a whopping 13.9 kilometres in distance. At that point, all looked well.
But he barely played a part from then on: 26 minutes against Slovenia, and just three against Denmark in a game Serbia had to win. SMS has long been a big part of the Serbia setup and has 54 caps for his country, but he faded into the background alarmingly fast here.
Marcelo Brozovic, CM, Al Nassr / Croatia
Minutes played: 225 of a possible 270
Speaking of international midfield stalwarts, Brozovic has been sat at the base of Croatia’s midfield for a decade now, and we’re accustomed to watching him break up play and hand the ball to teammate Luka Modric to do some damage. But at Euro 2024 that happened far less than it usually does as they crashed out in the group stage.
Brozovic had a terrible time of it in Croatia’s opener, a 3-0 loss to Spain. He started the second game, a 2-2 draw with Albania, but was substituted at half-time. He then struggled in the third, a 1-1 draw with Italy, until the closing stages before he found a second wind that ultimately came too late.
Croatia’s teamwide dysfunction naturally plays a part in his poor individual performance, but this was not the Brozovic we’re used to seeing — and far from the version who reached the Champions League final with Inter Milan just a year ago.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, ST, Al Hilal / Serbia
Minutes played: 240 of a possible 270
Mitrovic’s performances were bound to be some of the most interesting, as his own words fuelled the narrative surrounding the SPL drop-off.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan. He took 10 shots and scored zero goals, missing one particularly big chance against Slovenia, and was the fourth-biggest culprit in terms of xG underperformance (-1.2) in the group stage. He was also withdrawn after an hour against England having struggled to make his usual inroads into a physical defence.
Solomon Kvirkvelia, CB, Al Okhdood / Georgia
Minutes played: 180 of a possible 360
Kvirkvelia started Georgia’s first two group games on the right side of a back three, cementing his part in the fairy tale of their first-ever international tournament.
The 32-year-old defender was taken off late in both games — between the 82nd and 85th minute — then ducked out for the third, which happened to be Georgia’s first win on this stage. And his replacement, Giorgi Gvelesiani, played so well that he retained his spot for the loss to Spain in the round of 16.
THE INDIFFERENT
Rúben Neves, CM, Al Hilal / Portugal
Minutes played: 125 of a possible 510
Neves didn’t start a single game at Euro 2024. He did make four substitute appearances but never got more than 45 minutes at a time.
His primary role was to deputise for defensive midfielder João Palhinha, and he typically came on once the new Bayern Munich man had been booked. Neves played the entirety of extra time in the quarterfinal against France and was in line to start the semifinal had Portugal made it (Palhinha would have been suspended), but they were eliminated on penalties.
Georginio Wijnaldum, CM, Al Ettifaq / Netherlands
Minutes played: 70 of a possible 540
Like Neves, Wijnaldum didn’t start any games at Euro 2024, making three substitute appearances worth a combined 70 minutes. All three of those came in the group stage, and as soon as the Dutch reached the knockouts, we didn’t see him again.
Presumably, his primary value in the squad came in the form of being an elder statesman to the group — only one player, Daley Blind (34), was older — rather than his on-pitch work.
THE GOOD
Andrei Burca, CB, Al Okhdood / Romania
Minutes played: 360 of a possible 360
Romania’s centre-backs were asked to do a lot of defending in the penalty area over the course of their four games, which led to high praise for Tottenham defender Radu Dragusin.
Burca, his partner at the back, wasn’t quite as commanding or dominant but played his part in keeping up some high defensive standards and was very good in the first game against Ukraine in particular. He’s now a free agent, after departing Al Okhdood on July 1, and will likely have earned himself a few suitors.
Nicolae Stanciu, FW, Damac / Romania
Minutes played: 353 of a possible 360
It was Stanciu’s goal that gave Romania an epic lift-off in this tournament, firing home from outside the box and setting the Tricolorii on the path to an opening 3-0 win over Ukraine.
From that point on, though, they dipped as a team, gradually losing momentum and vigour, and Stanciu was as much a part of that as anyone. Still, Romania surprisingly won Group E and contested a rare knockout tournament game against Netherlands, pouring as much frenzied energy into their performances as possible.
Stanciu played 355 of a possible 360 minutes of a memorable campaign and scored one of the goals of the tournament.
Merih Demiral, CB, Al Ahli / Turkey
Minutes played: 206 of a possible 360
Turkey manager Vincenzo Montella seemingly hadn’t planned to lean much on Demiral at Euro 2024, but a suspension to Abdülkerim Bardakci forced a change in the defensive line for the final group game. The 26-year-old came in, impressed, then got the nod for the round-of-16 clash with Austria as the central point in a newly formed back three.
To simply say that he impressed again would be an understatement. Demiral’s performance against Austria was so good that it has a legitimate claim to be considered the best individual showing of the tournament, regardless of position.
He made the most interceptions (3), won the most aerial duels (6), had the joint-most blocks (5), made a ludicrous 17 clearances and, of course, scored the two goals that sealed Turkey’s victory, the first of which came in the first minute of the game, which set the stage for an incredible night.
Sadly, that was the last we would see of him, as the political nature of his celebration for the second goal resulted in a UEFA ban. That meant Demiral was unable to play the quarterfinal and continue his good form.
N’Golo Kanté, DM, Al Ittihad / France
Minutes played: 513 of a possible 570
Kanté started the tournament like a whirlwind, sweeping across the France midfield in a way that brought a reminiscent tear to many fans’ eyes. But as the tournament wore on, the 33-year-old’s level dropped. In the latter stages of the knockout games, his energy fizzled out and his passing radar went awry, leading to his substitution around the hour mark in the semifinal against Spain.
Overall, his tournament was a roaring success — but the brutal nature of playing an all-action central midfield role six times in 22 days undoubtedly caught up with him, leading to a gradual slide in influence following his red-hot start.
Aymeric Laporte, CB, Al Nassr / Spain
Minutes played: 525 of a possible 660
Laporte missed Spain’s opener due to a niggling injury but stepped in for the second game and never looked back. After that he was tremendous in defence for La Roja.
He played the third-most minutes of any Spain outfielder and worked with three different partners over the course of six games, but neither fatigue nor the chopping and changing of the line ruffled his feathers. He was dominant defending his box, purposeful striding out from the back with the ball, and coped with all manner of different forwards en route to the trophy.
Demiral might have delivered the best individual performance of the tournament from a Saudi Pro League player, but Laporte was clearly the best across the board.
Takeaways
Fourteen players, playing anywhere between 70 and 525 minutes, in a knockout competition that embraces the weird, wonderful and random, counts as a small sample size, so keep that in mind when drawing conclusions.
But looking through the cast and their performances, a clear trend emerges: Many started very strongly, either outperforming or outrunning those based in Europe, but then dropped off visibly.
Milinkovic-Savic, Brozovic, Kanté, Stanciu are notable examples of this; they all started with a bang, but three of them fizzled out pretty quickly, while the other, Kanté, declined in the knockouts.
Some, like Demiral and Kvirkvelia, drifted in and out of the manager’s plans, while others, like Ronaldo and Hendry, simply performed poorly throughout. Only one player, Laporte, maintained a consistently excellent level from start to finish … and was rewarded for it with the trophy.