Two African stars made it into the Team of the Tournament, a team filled with the best players of the championships and selected by UEFA’s 13-strong panel of technical observers.
Dimitri Payet, born on the island of Réunion, and Jerome Boateng, whose brother plays for Ghana, made the cut. We think it’s even more of an accolade that both players made it into our list of the players who lit up Euro 2016.
The selection process was lead by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu including Sir Alex Ferguson, Alain Giresse, David Moyes, Packie Bonner, Mixu Paatelainen, Savo Milošević, Peter Rudbæk, Gareth Southgate, Thomas Schaaf, Jean-François Domergue, Ginés Meléndez and Jean-Paul Brigger.
UEFA coaching ambassador Sir Alex Ferguson said: ‘After quite a bit of deliberation, the observers chose a team that features the best performing players from the best performing teams at UEFA EURO 2016. We have chosen dominant central defenders; full-backs who can defend and attack; deep-lying midfielders who can control the game and dynamic, flexible and creative attackers, all of whom have the ability to create and score goals. We believe that the selected XI represents the best of the competition.’