For the first time since 2010, Europe will not enter the Ryder Cup in 2018 as the defending champions. Only two months after losing the Ryder Cup to the United States for the first time since 2008, Team Europe has named Thomas Bjørn as captain for the 2018 competition in Paris.

Bjørn has been a part of seven European Ryder Cup teams, three times as a player (1997, 2002, 2014) and four as an assistant captain (2004, 2010, 2012, 2016), with the European team winning six times in those seven years. While Bjørn has never won on the PGA Tour, he has been a standout on the European Tour as a 15-time winner.

"It's a huge honor for me to be named European captain for The 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris," Bjørn said. "This is one of the greatest days in my career. I studied a lot of captains as a player and as a vice captain and always wondered what that feeling would be like to be the one leading out a team of 12 great players. Now it's my turn to do just that and it is an exciting moment for me.

"I have lived and breathed the European Tour for so long, and now I will do the same with The Ryder Cup for the next two years. I'm very much looking forward to taking on this task."

Bjørn is only the fourth captain for the European team not from the British Isles, joining Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal.