We pick out eight players who caught the eye at Euro 2024 and might have done enough to make a move across Europe’s major leagues.
Gone are the days of clubs signing players on the back of a few good performances at a major international tournament. Scouting is now so thorough that there’s little to no chance of a big club making an expensive mistake by signing a player who was just enjoying a summer purple patch.
But there are also plenty of players who were already interesting clubs and now, after further impressing at Euro 2024, will have set up a race for their signature.
So who could be on the move after catching the eye in Germany this summer? Here are eight suggestions.
Xavi Simons
Simons is owned by Paris Saint-Germain – where he has been since 2019 – but spent last season at RB Leipzig, and is thought to be available should a big enough bid come in for him this summer. He is way down the PSG pecking order – even after Kylian Mbappé’s departure – and might prefer the idea of moving on to guarantee game time.
The 21-year-old registered three assists and scored one more – a long-range effort against England in the semi-final – for the Netherlands at Euro 2024, with his four goal contributions only bettered by Spaniards Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo (more on him to come).
Simons was a constant attacking threat, racking up 10 shots and creating 12 chances in his five starts and one substitute appearance, with his rate of 4.3 shot involvements per 90 a decent return. Taking up more central positions than he did for Leipzig last season, he was able to show off his exceptional dribbling ability less often, averaging 0.8 successful dribbles per 90 at Euro 2024, compared to 2.8 per 90 in the Bundesliga in 2023-24.
There’s a complete attacker in there for one of Europe’s biggest teams to sign this summer.
Dani Olmo
Were it not for Pedri’s tournament-ending injury eight minutes into Spain’s quarter-final against Germany, Olmo would have been limited to the impact-sub role he took up at the beginning of Euro 2024.
In the end, he would play a key role for the eventual winners in the latter stages of the competition. He was directly involved in a tournament-high four goals in the knockout rounds, as he added three goals and one assist to his assist against Albania in his only start in the group stage. His total of five goals or assists across the tournament was also the joint most, despite the fact he only started three of Spain’s seven games, while he also shared the golden boot (and would have won it if the tie-breaker was assist tally, as used to be the case).
At club level, he shared the pitch last season with Simons at RB Leipzig, and may well be hoping for a move to bigger and better things after starring at this summer’s Euros. Word on the street (social media) is that the Spaniard has a £51 million release clause that expires later this week, and Manchester City and Bayern Munich are among the clubs considering activating it.
Marc Guéhi
Roundly considered England’s best player at Euro 2024, there is every reason to expect Guéhi to attract interest from a Champions League club.
He’s currently at Crystal Palace, who improved markedly under Oliver Glasner at the end of last season, but everyone at Selhurst Park will know that Guéhi, who they signed from Chelsea, may well have ambitions they can’t match. There’s talk of an imminent bid from Liverpool.
He won more aerial duels (13) than any other England player, and made the most blocks, too, while only John Stones completed more passes (68.5 per 90) or maintained a better pass success rate (93.9%) than him (66 passes per 90, 93.5% success rate). His performances in Germany proved he is capable of playing for a possession-dominant team, while he also made some crucial interventions at key moments that showed just how good a defender he is.
Mikel Merino
Merino only played 177 minutes at Euro 2024, and 90 of them came in Spain’s dead-rubber group stage game against Albania, but he still did enough to catch the eye.
A tidy yet physically imposing ball-playing midfielder, Merino is exceptional in possession, doing a key job for Spain in retaining possession late on in games with his team looking to hold on to a lead, while he is also good at breaking up play. He is exceptional in the air, ranking second of all players to play 300+ minutes in La Liga last season for aerial duels won per 90 (6.1) – a metric usually dominated by centre-backs and centre-forwards, not technical central midfielders – while he also times his runs from deep into the penalty area to good effect.
He combined these skills to head in the winner and knock Germany out in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals, and he scored seven goals across La Liga and the Champions League last season, three of which were headed.
Ferdi Kadioglu
Fenerbahce’s rampaging left-back was one of many bright sparks as Turkey sprung another surprise to make it as far as the Euro 2024 quarter-finals. Kadioglu had already attracted admirers before the tournament, and now there is talk of Premier League interest in such a versatile player.
He was ever-present at left-back throughout the tournament for Turkey but can also play at right-back or in midfield, technically gifted and tactically aware enough to play a huge variety of roles. His stats in this summer’s tournament show just how wide-ranging his abilities are.
He ranked among the top players at the entire tournament (200+ mins played) in a number of different categories: distance carrying the ball per 90 (143.6m – 12th), tackles per 90 (3.6 – sixth), chances created from open play (2.4 – third), and carries of at least 10m towards the opposition’s goal (5.6 – 16th). Reducing the search to only full-backs or even defenders moves Kadioglu even further up the rankings.
His performances this summer give good reason to believe he can make the step up to one of Europe’s biggest leagues before long.
Riccardo Calafiori
If you believe what you read online, it is apparently as good as done that Arsenal are going to sign Calafiori from Bologna this summer… but for now, that one is up in the air and the Italian centre-back is still on the market.
One of very few positives in a disappointing summer for Italy, Calafiori caught the eye with his work both in and out of possession. He ranked fifth among defenders for carries of at least 10m towards the opposition’s goal per 90 (6.0), and he maintained a pass success rate of 92.6%. He also won seven of his nine aerial duels, while no Italy player made more than his six interceptions, even though he missed the round-of-16 defeat to Switzerland through suspension. Speaking of which, it’s no coincidence that Italy crashed out without Calafiori.
At 22 years and 27 days old when he started against Albania, Calafiori became the second-youngest Italy defender to play in the European Championship after Paolo Maldini (19 years, 350 days). He’s got a long way to go to emulate one of Italy’s greatest ever players, but the early signs are that they might have produced another gem of a defender.
Dan Ndoye
Another Bologna player who thrived under Thiago Motta last season but may be considering his options after an impressive Euro 2024 with Motta himself having departed for Juventus.
Ndoye came into the Euros having played in a fair few different positions in Serie A last season, and then he was asked to do a broader range of jobs in the space of just five games this summer.
He started all of Switzerland’s games as they very nearly won Group A, knocked Italy out and then were a penalty-shootout defeat to England away from the semi-finals. Ndoye scored the opener against Germany and provided a consistent threat on goal wherever he played.
He had 14 shots in his five appearances, including four when playing right wing-back against Italy, and his 3.1 attempts per 90 put him 11th of all players with 200 minutes to their name at Euro 2024. As you might expect, all of the 10 players above him were attackers, and none spent any time anywhere near wing-back.
He also ranked ninth for successful dribbles per 90 (2.6), and when combining shots and successful dribbles, he ranked fourth, with 5.7 per 90, behind only Kylian Mbappé (8.0), Dani Olmo (6.5) and Jérémy Doku (5.9). It might be a little extreme to expect him to keep that kind of company over the course of an entire season, but his performances at Euro 2024 suggest he isn’t entirely out of place alongside them.
Dennis Man
Perhaps a player who won’t be going to as big a club as some of the others in this list, but Man might not get a better opportunity to get a big move.
Last season he helped Parma get back into Serie A and so will be playing in Europe’s top five leagues whether or not he stays, but a string of impressive displays for Romania could lead to a bigger club that are less likely to be battling the drop coming in for him.
The winger set up two goals in Romania’s 3-0 win over Ukraine on matchday one at Euro 2024 – one of the greatest days in the nation’s footballing history, and a result that set the wheels in motion for Romania to top Group E.
Despite playing only 73.8% of possible minutes at Euro 2024, he ranked either first or second for Romania for shots (6), shots on target (3), chances created (4), successful dribbles (4), carries (33) and carries of at least 5m upfield (15).
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