Where are they now? The Euro 2020 Team of the Tournament

England and Italy players inevitably dominated Euro 2020’s Team of the Tournament, with players from PSG, Manchester City, Arsenal, Juventus, Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea among those represented.

Three years have passed since Italy beat England in that unforgettable final at Wembley. Delayed a year after the coronavirus pandemic, the Europe-wide tournament saw England make history by eliminating Germany en route to the final, while hot favourites France suffered a shock defeat to Switzerland in the first knockout stage. If Euro 2024 can deliver even half that drama, we’re onto a winner.

What became of the players that shone in the European Championships that summer? We’ve checked in on where they’re at three years on.

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma

Gianluigi Buffon’s successor was only 22 years old at Euro 2020, but he already had bags of experience, racking up over 250 appearances for boyhood club AC Milan after breaking through as a nipper.

Donnarumma left the Rossoneri when his contract expired that summer, joining PSG when his stock was at its highest after his show-stealing penalty shootout performances against Spain and England. But his replacement at the San Siro, PSG academy graduate Mike Maignan, has arguably proven an upgrade – particularly good in Milan’s 2021-22 Scudetto triumph and run to the Champions League semis the following year.

He remains Italy’s No.1 and has inevitably won three successive Ligue 1 titles whilst in Paris, but he’s made some notable mistakes in PSG’s Champions League exits and hasn’t quite kicked on to become the best ‘keeper in the world as many predicted he would.

READ: Euro 2024: Every squad announced so far including France, Germany & Netherlands…

RB: Kyle Walker

Walker went into Euro 2021 after helping Manchester City wrestle the Premier League title back off Liverpool, and he’s since made it four in a row, and six in seven during his time at The Etihad, captain for their latest in 2023-24.

He’s getting on a bit – he’ll be 34 when Euro 2024 gets underway – but he retains Gareth Southgate’s faith amid strong competition and is expected to line up on the right side of defence in Germany this summer.

CB: Leonardo Bonucci

Euro 2020 can almost be seen as the grizzled Italian veteran’s last dance at the very top level, alongside his long-serving partner in crime Giorgio Chiellini, who gave us what was arguably Euro 2020’s most iconic image with that shirt tug on Bukayo Saka in the final.

But it was Bonucci that got the nod ahead his Azzurri team-mate at the heart of the defence in the Team of the Tournament. The centre-back stayed around at Juventus until 2023 as they continued their decline from perennial Serie A champions to top four strugglers, while an eyebrow-raising move to Union Berlin last summer didn’t work out.

The 37-year-old left the Bundesliga club amid their relegation battle in January and is now seeing out his twilight years with Turkish Super Lig outfit Fenerbahce.

CB: Harry Maguire

Getting the nod ahead of Chiellini and his England team-mate John Stones was Maguire, who still enjoyed a reputation as one of Europe’s top centre-backs three years ago.

He remains the most expensive defender in history, and had just captained Manchester United to a respectable second-place finish in the Premier League, with 2020-21 arguably their best league campaign of the post-Ferguson era. They might well have beaten Villarreal in that year’s Europa League final were he fit and available, too.

Maguire’s stock has fallen considerably in the years since. He was stripped of his club’s captaincy by Erik ten Hag and reportedly came close to a move last summer, but he’s stood his ground and enjoyed a renaissance with a much more prominent role amid United’s injury crisis this season.

Emerging stars like Jarrad Branthwaite might see Maguire finally lose his place in England’s XI come the next World Cup, but we expect to see him retaining Southgate’s faith for a fourth successive major tournament this summer.

QUIZ: Can you name every member of England’s squad for Euro 2020?

LB: Leonardo Spinazzola

Injuries – including a serious Achilles tendon rupture a couple of years back – have stopped Spinazzola playing as often as he might have in recent years, but he’s still notched up over 150 appearances for Roma over the past five seasons.

He featured in the Giallorossi’s Europa League and Conference League final appearances under Jose Mourinho over the last couple of years, as well as Roberto Mancini’s preferred XI as the Azzurri finished third in the Nations League last summer. But he doesn’t appear much fancied under Luciano Spalletti and is doubtful to make it onto the plane to Germany.

DM: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg

Another player that was probably better-regarded three years back, Hojbjerg went into Euro 2020 off the back of a promising debut season with Tottenham and proved solid as a rock in Denmark’s surprise run to the semi-finals.

He remains a committed player to the cause for club and country, proving himself useful in more of a squad role under Ange Postecoglou in 2023-24, but there’s a suspicion that he’s an awkward stylistic fit for the football the Australian coach is attempting to instil. Things have arguably stagnated a bit for the tough-tackling Dane and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him move club in the coming weeks.

There’s little question that Hojbjerg will remain one of the first names on Denmark’s teamsheet this summer, though.

DM: Jorginho

The midfielder ended up on the Ballon d’Or podium in 2021, and was named UEFA Men’s Player of the Year (the only Italian to win the award), after the key role he played in Chelsea and Italy lifting prestigious European silverware that year.

He left Stamford Bridge in January 2023 amid the total squad rebuild under Todd Boehly and has proven himself a canny addition to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal squad. He’s not an undisputed starter for Arsenal – with just 10 Premier League starts in their title chase in 2023-24 – but he’s earned himself a contract extension after outstanding performances against the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester City.

Jorginho rejected offers to return to Serie A in order to prolong his stay in North London.

“Jorgi is such an important part of our team, a role model with great leadership skills and a unique playing style ability which makes everybody better around him on the pitch,” says Arteta.

“We’re very pleased that Jorgi and his family have committed with us and we’re all excited to continue this journey together.”

READ NEXT: Watching a non-football fan fall in love with Euro 2020 made my tournament

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every team to win the UEFA European Championship?

CM: Pedri

The Barcelona wonderkid’s haggard expression ahead of an Olympics match in the summer of 2021 became something of a meme. At that point he’d already played over 2000 La Liga minutes in his breakthrough season as well as a key role in Spain’s run to the Euro 2020 semis.

But there were serious questions to be asked over how his club and country were managing his load. Sure enough, he’s struggled with injuries over the past three years, averaging just 15 La Liga starts for Barca since Euro 2020.

Still, he’s won a La Liga title and remains a ludicrously technically gifted midfield maestro. There were fears that he’d be sidelined for Euro 2024, but on the evidence of his two-goal showing in Barcelona’s 3-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano at the weekend, he’ll surely start for La Roja in Germany.

FWR: Federico Chiesa

It’s a recurring theme in this XI that players peaked at Euro 2021 and it’s arguably most true of Chiesa, who was absolutely unplayable in Italy’s triumph that tournament. A cruciate ligament tear forced him to miss almost the entirety of 2022-23, and while he’s returned to play regularly for Juventus this season, there remains a sense that we’re still waiting for the winger to get back to his very best.

Chiesa is approaching the final year of his contract with the Old Lady and has been linked with the likes of Roma and Liverpool, but it sounds as though he’s intent on staying in Turin.

“The Italian Cup and reaching the Champions League were set objectives, both for the club and myself,” he said after Juve’s Coppa Italia final victory over Atalanta.

“I spoke with [Sporting Director] Giuntoli and we will meet at the end of the season: each one of us will have their own ideas. My thought is to remain in this great club, I want to bring Juve back to where it deserves to be.”

ST: Romelu Lukaku

Eighty-three goals in 114 appearances for Belgium is an absolutely ludicrous return, and you’d expect the 31-year-old to eventually join Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in an exclusive club of players that have scored over a hundred goals in international football.

The striker has also scored over 300 goals in the club game, yet there remains a question mark over his place among the greats of his generation. He was a force of nature for Inter, scoring 30 goals as they claimed the Scudetto in 2020-21, but it’s been all downhill since a big-money return to Chelsea that summer.

Lukaku’s 50 goals over the past three seasons with Chelsea, Inter and Roma is by no means a terrible return, but he continues to be a headache for Chelsea, who once again look set to struggle to offload him. He still has two years left on his lucrative contract at Stamford Bridge and his career appears to have reached a weird kind of limbo.

FWL: Raheem Sterling

It wasn’t so long ago that Sterling was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous forwards in the Premier League and among the first names on Gareth Southgate’s England teamsheet.

But things haven’t gone to plan since Pep Guardiola ruthlessly decided to get rid a couple of years back. Chelsea’s struggles have matched his own, and while there have been the odd flickers of form, we’re not expecting Sterling to feature in Southgate’s plans for the summer.

Quite the fall from grace for a player who is not yet 30.