Record numbers and curiosities about 2016 European Football Championship: from the fastest player to the lucky number 17

2016 European Football Championship surely has been one of the most amazing championships ever, because of surprising twists and turns, great debuts like that of the much-loved Iceland Club, and unexpected situations like the unfortunate Ronald’s injury during the final won by his team Portugal against France. Analysing the 2016 UEFA statistics, we realise that this championship has been rich in record numbers and curiosities. The most interesting ones are in the list below.

 

UEFA 2016: the tallest and the shortest, the youngest and the oldest

 

The record for the tallest player in 2016 UEFA goes to the Romania goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon, with his 2,03 metres tall. Its exact opposite goes to Lorenzo Insigne, forward player in Italy Club, with his 1,63 metres tall. The oldest player in the entire competition was Gabor Kiraly,  the historical goalkeeper in Hungary team, the first forty-year-old man entering a European Football Championship (40 years old and 74 days).  The youngest player was the English man Marcus Rashford, who was born on 31 October 1997.

 

The importance of number 17 for striker Eder

 

A strange coincidence presented itself in a competition and the protagonist was once again Italy Club and the player Eder in particular. Number 17,  known for its association with bad luck, has been certainly good for the forward player, who scored a goal during the match against Sweden, on Friday 17, at 17 to 5:00 pm, while he was wearing a shirt with number 17. Eder might be grateful to his origins in South America, where the number associated with bad luck is 13, differently from the Italian 17.

 

Kgsley Coman , the fastest player

 

The fastest player in UEFA 2016 was the French man Kingsley Coman, a talented young man (20 years old) who comes from Bayern Monaco Club (on loan from Juventus club). The statistics assesed his speed as the highest one in the entire competition: 32,8 km/h.

 

Iceland: a record-breaking goalkeeper

 

Besides making everybody dream, thanks to her achievements,  and besides reaching the primacy for the most followed team in 2016 UEFA, Iceland Club has an other important record: the great performance of the goalkeeper who actually made 27 saves. We are talking about Hannes Þór Halldórsson, who is 32 years old and has a career as a football player and as a movie director.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo and his talents at European Football Championship

 

Cristiano Ronaldo certainly has been a star in 2016 UEFA,  not just for the victory of Portugal, not just for a final marked by his unfortunate injury, but, above all, for countless talents he has showed. In European championships, Ronaldo holds the record for:

 

• Participation (a total of 21 matches)
• Semifinals played (3)
• Goals scored (a total of 9 in 4 consecutive editions)
• Best striker ever (a record shared with Platini)
• Largest number of shots during this 2016 edition (46)

 

Griezmann, goal-scorer at 2016 European Football Championship

 

The record for the number of goals scored at UEFA 2016 belongs  to Antoine Griezmann, forward player of France Club, nicknamed Le Petit Diable and included in the list of the best football players born after 1991. The little French devil struck 6 goals during the competition, twice the number of goals scored by the following players Gareth Bale (Wales team), Alvaro Morata (Spain team), Dimitri Payet (France team), Olivier Giroud (France team), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal team), Nani (Portugal team).

 

Curiosities about number 6

 

Thanks to the winner goal of Eder, the player who gave victory to his team at 2016 UEFA, number 6 becomes significant in the history of European Football Championships. The striker actually has become the sixth player scoring a goal in a final after entering the field during a match already opened. His Portuguese team, in addition, has conquered the final making through 6 competions without winning. Finally, the final of this year has been the sixth European final which has gone to extra time (the first one with no goals scored within the 90 minutes).

 

Italy and Iceland, opposite formations

In the five matches the Italian team played, couch Antonio Conte never fielded the same team because of suspensions and injuries. Among 23 players available, 20 of them started the match from minute 1. Only the goalkeeper Marchetti did not take the field. An opposite strategy has been adopted by Iceland team, whose coach Lageraback has insisted on fielding the same lineup from minute 1 during all the matches. The Icelandic lineup, fielded at the beginning of the competition, remained the same: Halldorsson, Saevarsson, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Arnason, Skulason, Gudmundsson, Gunnarsson, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Bjarnason, Sigthorsson and Bodvarsson.

 

A multicultural European Championship: a 30% of ‘foreign’ football players

 

UEFA 2016 for the first time recorded a very high number of players whose origin differs from that of the team they were part of. Among 552 players summoned, 166 might have played for a team of a different nationality (basically one in three). The all-time record goes to France, which had 15 “foreign” players among 23 players in total. Italy placed in the middle of the league with 5 “foreign” players among 23 players.