The big stage is for the big players. That’s what we’re told. But sometimes even the biggest stars can shrink under the spotlight, and Euro 2024 has been particularly notorious for some of the biggest names in the sport failing to do the business.
As such, I've built an XI of the most disappointing players at the tournament, picking the major culprits from each position to anoint with this rather… awkward honour.
The options were plentiful, so it was no easy task to narrow down the field—especially when it came to picking the forwards. Many of the most common Golden Boot picks badly underperformed in front of goal, scoring just one or even none at all. We avoided the temptation to pack the team full of Croatians too, although you could easily justify more than the two selected given they were the big group stage casualty.
VIDEO Why England FINALLY Came Good Against The Netherlands
GK: Andriy Lunin, Ukraine
To find yourself on this list after playing just a single game might seem harsh – but the single game Lunin played was a disaster of epic proportions.
He pretty much spoon-fed Romania two of their three goals in that stunning opening loss and the damage wasn’t contained to that match.
Ukraine fought back valiantly to gain four points from their next two games (with Anatolii Trubin in goal instead), but missed the Round of 16 on goal difference, largely due to losing to Romania so heavily in Lunin's one and only game.
RB: Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Italy
At Euro 2020, Di Lorenzo was a quiet but vital part of Italy’s winning machine, playing a hybrid right-back/centre-back role and doing so without fault.
Fast-forward three years and the decline is alarming. He endured one of the worst games of his life against Spain’s Nico Williams, then looked bewildered and confused by Switzerland’s speed and rotations on the flank in the Round of 16.
CB: John Stones, England
Stones has set a very high bar for himself over the last few years, morphing into much more than just a centre-back. The variety of things he can do on the pitch is rare – and it’s the fact we’ve seen so little of it during the tournament that hurts.
It’s not just about him not pushing into midfield either – to an extent that stems from the manager – but his box defending has been really shaky at times too, with shanked clearances and missed interceptions pervading his game.
CB: Willi Orban, Hungary
People were excited for Hungary at Euro 2024. They entered June on a 14-match unbeaten run and gathered a fair amount of dark horse energy as the previews and predictions came in.
Sadly, they were off the pace right from the word go, and among the worst culprits was experienced defender Orban. His calamitous errors at the back led directly to two goals – one against Switzerland, the other against Germany – which was the last thing expected of a player so established at the top level.
LB: Josko Gvardiol, Croatia
Croatia were the sole “major” nation to drop out at the group stage, which immediately tells you things went badly wrong. They conceded six goals in three games, got hammered by Spain, and relinquished a lead to Italy in the 96th minute –so, in short, they were defensively suspect.
Much to many’s surprise, Gvardiol was as much a part of any of his teammates in that. He switched between centre-back and left-back to no avail, getting rinsed by Lamine Yamal in the opener and never really recovering.
DM: Jorginho, Italy
“He must come and get the ball. Otherwise, there’s no point in him playing!” Italy manager Luciano Spalletti lost his patience with Jorginho during Italy’s defeat to Spain, subbing him off at half-time due to ineffectiveness.
He did start the next game against Croatia but dropped to the bench for the Round of 16. It speaks to Spalletti’s loss of faith in Jorginho that in his place stepped Nicolo Fagioli, who had played only a handful of minutes all year due to a gambling suspension. It went badly.
CM: Joey Veerman, Netherlands
Over the past few seasons, Veerman has been scouted by and linked to a whole host of Premier League clubs. If he’s lucky, none of were watching this summer.
He began the tournament in the XI, under increased pressure following the injury withdrawal of Frenkie de Jong, and struggled to make his mark against Poland. He was dropped to the bench for game two but returned for game three – only to be hauled off after just 33 minutes for giving the ball away relentlessly.
He was a positive off the bench against England in the semi-final, but couldn’t turn the tide for the Oranje.
CM: Luka Modric, Croatia
Modric’s early exit from the competition was a real tear-jerker. If that’s it for him in a Croatia shirt, it’s a sad way to go out.
That positive flow of sentiment towards him perhaps helped a few forget how poorly he performed in this tournament, though. He was uncharacteristically bad against Spain and Albania, often making bad decisions on the ball in space or on the counter-attack, then had to make up for missing a penalty against Italy by scoring a minute later.
AM: Antoine Griezmann, France
Just 18 months ago, Griezmann stepped into a Paul Pogba-shaped hole in France’s midfield and played some of the best football of his life in Qatar. Fast-forward to Euro 2024, though, and he looked a strange combination of rusty and lost for ideas.
It didn’t help that Didier Deschamps kept shifting his position, but then, he was likely doing that to try and shake Griezmann out of his funk. Zero goals, zero assists, but beyond that even the simple things went wrong: his touch was off, his set pieces poor, his movement sluggish.
ST: Harry Kane, England
Kane will step onto the pitch on Sunday knowing a goal in the final could see him scoop the Golden Boot. When you frame his tournament, it’s slightly jarring to label him a disappointment.
But regardless of goals scored, few are under any illusions as to how difficult a watch he’s been this summer. Centre-backs have knocked him around, passes have bounced off him, his distribution game has been blunted by a lack of runners and he’s only managed to land five shots on target in six games, mostly because he’s rarely got himself into good shooting positions.
ST: Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Twenty-three shots, no goals—and that includes a missed penalty that brought him to tears. Safe to say, this was not Ronaldo’s tournament.
His insistence on taking all the shots (and missing them), almost all of the freekicks (and missing them), plus manager Roberto Martínez’s insistence on gearing the team towards creating chances specifically for him, eventually led to their downfall.
It was absolutely bizarre to watch.
More Euros stories
Euro 2024 stars cut in half during games, due to bizarre advertising glitches
Quiz! Can you name every Euro 2024 nation's record goalscorer?
Why did Lionel Messi have a photo with Lamine Yamal as a baby?
