Lamine Yamal of Spain celebrates with his winners medal and ‘Best Young Player’ award after victory over England in the UEFA EURO 2024 final match at Olympiastadion on July 14, 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
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Spain’s teenage phenom Lamine Yamal won the European Championship and the tournament’s best young player award just a day after he turned 17. Yamal earned it mostly while he was still 16, but he crowned his contribution to Spain’s success by setting up Nico Williams’ opening goal in a 2-1 win over England in the final on July 14, 2024.
“This is the best (birthday) gift I could have asked for. It’s a dream come true,” Yamal said. “It got tough when they tied the score, but I don’t know what this team is made of because we always fight back.”
Yamal became the youngest player to appear at the European Championship, the youngest to score in the tournament, and the youngest to play in a final. He finished with four assists and one goal in his debut European Championship.
Yamal plays for Barcelona, following in the footsteps of his idol, Lionel Messi, after coming through the club’s famed La Masia training academy. He’s also the youngest goalscorer in the Spanish league.
Harry Kane and Dani Olmo end in a 6-way tie for Golden Boot top scorer
England striker Harry Kane finished Euro 2024 in a six-way tie for the Golden Boot top scorer as his team lost the final. It was another individual accolade for a player yet to win a major trophy for club or country.
England’s Harry Kane walks past the trophy after the final match between Spain and England at the Euro 2024 tournament in Berlin, Germany, on July 14, 2024.
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AP
Kane ended the tournament tied on three goals with Spain midfielder Dani Olmo, Germany midfielder Jamal Musiala, Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo, Slovakia winger Ivan Schranz and Georgia striker Georges Mikautadze.
Kane has now been a runner-up in back-to-back European Championship finals after England’s loss to Italy three years ago, and a runner-up in one Champions League final and two English League Cups. He’s won a string of individual awards, including Bundesliga top scorer last season at Bayern Munich, but the German club had its first season without a trophy since 2012.
Kane is one of four men’s players to have been top scorer at both a European Championship and a World Cup, something he achieved in 2018.
UEFA allowed multiple players to share the Euro 2024 top scorer award if they scored the same number of goals, in a change from recent tournaments. At the last men’s European Championship, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Czech striker Patrik Schick both had five goals but Ronaldo was named the winner because he had an assist and Schick had none.
Southgate to discuss England future after Euro final defeat
England coach Gareth Southgate said he would discuss his future in charge of the national team after Sunday’s defeat left him once again trying to work out why glory had eluded his side.
Gareth Southgate, Head Coach of England, applauds the fans after the team’s defeat in the UEFA EURO 2024 final match between Spain and England at Olympiastadion on July 14, 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
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England lost in the tournament’s showpiece match for the second time in a row under Southgate after substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored an 86th-minute goal to give Spain victory.
Asked whether he would continue in the job, Southgate told reporters: “I totally understand the question and understand you need to ask it, but I need to have those conversations with important people behind the scenes and I’m obviously not going to discuss that publicly first.
“Without a doubt, England have got some fabulous young players,” he added. “We have now been consistently back in the matches that matter. It’s the last step that we haven’t been able to do.”
England – with only the 1966 World Cup to their name as a major trophy – have become a force in tournaments since Southgate took over the team at a low ebb in 2016. They reached a semi-final and a quarter-final at the last two World Cups as well as the final of Euro 2020 — when they lost to Italy on penalties — and 2024.
“It’s hard to reflect so soon after a defeat like this,” Southgate said when asked if he would be in charge of England for the 2026 World Cup. “Of course, to take England to two finals has never been done but we came here to win and we haven’t been able to do that.”
