UEFA EURO 2016 Team of the Tournament revealed
Monday, July 11, 2016
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Four Portugal players, three from Germany and two each representing France and Wales have made the official UEFA EURO 2016 Team of the Tournament.
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The team (4-2-3-1): Rui Patrício (Portugal); Joshua Kimmich (Germany), Jérôme Boateng (Germany), Pepe (Portugal), Raphaël Guerreiro (Portugal); Toni Kroos (Germany), Joe Allen (Wales); Antoine Griezmann (France), Aaron Ramsey (Wales), Dimitri Payet (France); Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal).
In the past a 23-man squad was selected with Ronaldo (2004 and 2012) and Pepe (2008 and 2012) both previously picked twice. Ronaldo was also in the All-Time EURO 11 named before the tournament.
The team was selected by UEFA's 13-strong panel of technical observers, led by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu and including Sir Alex Ferguson, Alain Giresse, David Moyes, Packie Bonner, Mixu Paatelainen, Savo Milošević, Peter Rudbæk, Gareth Southgate, Thomas Schaaf, Jean-François Domergue, Ginés Meléndez and Jean-Paul Brigger.
The technical observers have made their choices bases on various criteria, which had been outlined before the tournament. The formation was selected as the most-used of the finals. Two technical observers were present at every game and their reports will contribute to the UEFA EURO 2016 technical report, which will be released on UEFA.com in September.
UEFA coaching ambassador Sir Alex Ferguson said: "After quite a bit of deliberation, the observers chose a team that features the best performing players from the best performing teams at UEFA EURO 2016. We have chosen dominant central defenders; full-backs who can defend and attack; deep-lying midfielders who can control the game and dynamic, flexible and creative attackers, all of whom have the ability to create and score goals. We believe that the selected XI represents the best of the competition."