Who Should be Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament?

Looking back, Euro 2008 has been a bit special. Remember Cracking football, quality goals, big drama and a lot of good performances. But there hasn’t really been one player who’s risen above everyone else and dominated proceedings.

Not that that’s a bad thing. It just makes it very hard to choose a player of the tournament. UEFA will get together and announce their official Player of the Tournament at 11:00 CET Monday morning. But until then, let’s do some speculating.

Right now, it’s hard not to think about Spanish players. They only won the tournament a few hours back, so some good performances are still fresh in the memory. David Villa has got the golden boot with four goals, but three of those came in the first game. There’s an argument that Fernando Torres has been better as the games got bigger.

Andres Iniesta has been impressive down the left and right, but Marcos Senna has arguably been Spain’s best mid, doing some incredible and crucial work as defensive mid. Would be a bit weird if the Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament was actually Brazilian, but that’s no reason to stop him winning it.

Long-haired muscle man Carles Puyol has been Spain’s most impressive defender, but I’d argue Iker Casillas has been more consistent and come up with some massive saves. He’s looked like the best keeper in the world these past three weeks.

Germany’s Michael Ballack has to be a contender too. Today he played with a knot in his calf and a cut above his eye, so wasn’t operating at full capacity. But, as in 2002, he’s the main reason a not particularly brilliant Germany team made it to the final. He’s dominated more than one game and scored twice from midfield. Bastian Schweinsteiger’s had some good moments, but – as with his whole career – he’s hasn’t been consistently impressive.

Russian attacking mid Andrei Arshavin missed the first two games through suspension, but was the talk of the tournament for a few days especially after taking the Netherlands to pieces with his passing, dribbling, creativity and nose for goal. Not to mention scary facial expressions. I’d argue that performance against the Netherlands was the performance of the tournament. And he was equally creative against Sweden, but then hopeless against Spain in the semi.

Two out of three ain’t bad (thanks Meatloaf) but two games total from a whole tournament might not be enough. Left winger/left back/whatever Yuriy Zhirkov was at least as impressive and definitely did it more times than Arshavin, so definitely deserves some consideration.

Euro 2008 was a great team perfomance from Turkey, but there was some individual brilliance in there. Nihat Kahveci made us forget all about Hakan Sukur and his pace and finishing were consistently fearsome. Who knows what Turkey could have done had he not got injured. Arda Turan looked more promising than polished, but definitely stood out. Arguably Turkey’s best player was Hamit Altintop, who seemed to be everywhere at once. Identical twin Halil was supposedly injured, but I’m not so sure…

Does Luka Modric deserve a mention. Definitely, he wowed us more than once and always looked comfy with the ball, did the biz against Germany but couldn’t quite pull it out against Turkey. To pretty much live up to all that pre-tournament hype takes some doing though. Tottenham Hotspur will be happy, no?

And we nearly forgot the Netherlands. Until they met Arshavin and Zhirkov, they looked like a team ready to go all the way. Wesley Sneijder put in the sort of attacking mid performances that won La Liga for Real Madrid last year, all creativity and sweet shooting. And Gio van Brockhurst put in a couple of performances that made you forget he was just Gio van Bronckhurst. But the fact that others did enough to go further will probably rule them both out.

I’d make the argument for Iker Casillas (hence the photo up top). While every other player has a “but” after their recommendation, Spain’s captain and keeper is the only player you can say did absolutely everything right at Euro 2008. We’ll find out if UEFA agree tomorrow morning.

Anyone I’ve missed out?