Our Golazo 100 is finalised and -- as if we've planned it ourselves -- you'll be perusing and debating the final list just a few short days before the biggest soccer tournament of the summer gets underway. Yes Copa America might have plenty of big games ahead but for sheer star power there is simply no beating the European Championships, which kick off on Friday.
In all, 59 of the Golazo 100 will be taking to the field in the tournament, a number which would be a fair bit higher if it weren't for the surprising absences of Norway (who have Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard in our top 20) and Sweden. And even if the tournament is not quite the brutal showdown between some of the best national sides on the planet that it was in its eight or even 16 team iterations, the group stages of Euro 2024 will still deliver some matchups between high grade talent early on.
The third match of the tournament pits a sextet of Spanish Golazo 100 representatives, including fifth ranked Rodri, against a Croatia side led by Luka Modric (No.40) with young Josko Gvardiol (No.51) in defense. Virgil van Dijk (No.21) will get the chance to prove why he was the top ranked center back in the world in a group stage when the Netherlands face off first against Robert Lewandowski's (No.19) Poland and then the combined talents of Antoine Griezmann (No.13), Kylian Mbappe (No.1) and the rest of the France attack.
All that and England will be rolling out an attack with four players from the top 11 in our rankings. The stars are very much going to be out at the Euros, here are three who could be among the most intriguing:
1. Harry Kane, England
Almost all of England's attack have something riding on Euro 2024. Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden can prove themselves to be the next great capital "S" Stars of the Premier League and beyond, the latter with some work yet to be done in terms of translating his club form to the international stage. If Jude Bellingham plays an outsized role in England winning their first major tournament in 58 years then the Champions League and La Liga winner might immediately become the favorite to win the Ballon d'Or, dependent on how his Real Madrid team mate Vinicius Junior fares at the Copa America.
Really though, as has been the case at every major tournament England have played at in the last 30 years, bar 2002, it's all about the star striker. Harry Kane still needs that trophy and is still as capable as anyone in Gareth Southgate's squad of making the difference in the key moments. He is going to deliver goals with the same regularity he has across his 91 caps. In that time he has scored 63 goals. No one else in this squad has yet reached 12.
The Bundesliga's top scorer should feel comfortable on German soil, but everyone else hears that ticking clock, the soon to be 31-year-old who might be at his peak now, but whose remaining international tournaments at elite level grow ever more smaller. If not now, will he still be the same player in north America two summers hence? Even in the era where the best of the best hold their levels into their 30s, would Kane be able to guide England to glory on home soil in 2028?
The time is now for the Three Lions' record goalscorer. Never before has he been surrounded by such elite talent. If he wants to drop deep, no matter, Jude Bellingham has proven himself to be at ease at the tip of an attack. Phil Foden would be perfectly happy attacking the space he vacates too. Those two, Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze, Trent Alexander-Arnold: that makes for the best supply line Kane has ever had. If he delivers and takes England all the way, immortality beckons.
2. Florian Wirtz, Germany
A somewhat unknown Germany collective, welcoming the best the world has to offer to their country at a time where precious few expect them to make a major mark on the tournament? We've seen that script before in 2006, the year when Die Mannschaft came so close to a World Cup final with Jurgen Klinsmann in the dugout. This time round they have perhaps the best coach in the field with Julian Nagelsmann, while hopes have been steadily building following impressive results in pre-tournament friendlies. This could actually be a team that does even better than 18 years ago.
If that is to be the case then Florian Wirtz is as well-placed to be the face of the German cause as anyone else. The star of Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten domestic season and the Bundesliga's player of the season, the 21 year old still does not quite get the hype he deserves, again quite something for a player whose 15th placing on the Golazo 100 puts him in between Bernardo Silva and Declan Rice. In 49 club games last season Wirtz delivered 18 goals and 19 assists, averaging a goal contribution every 93.4 minutes. For the national team he weighed in with a brilliant opener in a 2-0 win at France, a game where he looked all the more effective with Toni Kroos in the supply line behind him.
The only convincing reason one can imagine for why Wirtz might not be the face of this tournament is the other number 10 Nagelsmann can look to deploy, Jamal Musiala (No.18 on the Golazo 100). These two are the archetype of the new German football: technically excellent, fearless with the ball at their feet and diligent when the opposition have possession. The future of any team with those two looks irridescently bright anyway. The present might be too.
3. Alessandro Bastoni, Italy
Both Kane and Wirtz have something of an advantage in being players to watch at Euro 2024: they're both pretty likely to be hanging around in Germany for quite a while. The draw for the group stage has been kind to both sides, who avoided the sort of big beasts that can often face off against each other in this tournament. Holders Italy have not been so fortunate with Spain and Croatia, even their opening game against Albania constitutes quite a headache given the pressure that will be on them to not slip behind the eight ball in Group B.
The three years since their surprise win at Euro 2020 have not been kind for the Azzurri with many of those who shone at the last tournament either retired -- Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci the most notable -- or diminished forces from the players they were in that remarkable summer. If Italy are going to achieve something special it will be through a new generation. Few of them seem as primed to excel this summer as Inter's Alessandro Bastoni (No. 67 on the Golazo 100). A squad member in Euro 2020, Serie A's reigning defensive player of the year will now be tasked with marshalling a backline that is going to have to keep games low-scoring to mitigate the relative weaknesses of the Italian frontline.
If Luciano Spalletti uses Bastoni wisely he will look to exploit more than his numerous defensive qualities. As Francesco Porzio noted in his profile of the 25 year old: "He's not just one of the most influential defenders of this era, he's a playmaker playing in the left of a three-back defense, an assist-man and also a goal scorer when he has a chance."
