European Under-21 Championship: How important is winning the tournament?

As the table above shows, 29 players have won the U21 Euros and then a major senior tournament – including Laurent Blanc, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Totti and Manuel Neuer.

Not just counting the winning team, many of the world’s best players have impressed at previous European Under-21 Championships.

Among the players to win the best player of the tournament award were Rudi Voller, Blanc, Davor Suker, Luis Figo, Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo, Petr Cech, Juan Mata, Thiago and Fabian Ruiz.

However, there are a few outliers.

Renato Buso and the late Francesc Arnau never won a senior cap for Italy or Spain respectively, while Royston Drenthe only played once for the Netherlands. Arsenal’s Fabio Vieira, 25, has yet to feature for the Portugal senior team.

Sweden’s Marcus Berg had a good goal-laden career, although never played for one of Europe’s top clubs.

The list of Golden Boot winners is more of a mixed bag.

Andrea Pirlo, despite being a midfielder, Alberto Gilardino and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar were among the previous winners.

But Massimo Maccarone, Maceo Rigters, Jan Kliment or Luca Waldschmidt are unlikely to have any statues made of them.

Germany’s Nick Woltemade is the top scorer in this tournament with five goals – two clear of three different players.