UEFA Euro 2024: Five key takeaways from the tournament

Spain were crowned European champions for a record fourth time as they brought to an end a rollercoaster month of football when they defeated England 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final.

Hosts Germany were among the pretournament favourites alongside Qatar 2022 World Cup finalists France while big names, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, were making their final appearance at the competition.

There was also controversy, politics and an unwanted record for defeated finalists England. Here are Al Jazeera’s top five Euro 2024 takeaways:

Spain and Yamal tipped for World Cup after Euro dominance

If there was one thing that no one could question about Euro 2024, it was that Spain were deserved winners on Sunday. A magnificent seven straight wins in their campaign swept away all before them, and in doing so, they moved clear of Germany to claim a record fourth European Football Championship. What made their achievement even more special was the age of their squad.

Lamine Yamal was named Young Player of the Tournament, and the then-16-year-old’s record-breaking goal in the semifinal against France was undoubtedly the best of the edition. The Player of the Tournament, Rodri, has only just reached the peak of his powers at 28 while on the other wing to Barcelona’s Yamal was the final’s Player of the Match and its first goal scorer, Nico Williams. The 22-year-old’s club, Athletic Bilbao, will now be preparing to take calls from all of Europe’s elite clubs with offers for the dynamic forward.

“I think we’ve made history,” Williams said after the final. “Right now, we don’t realise what we’ve done. We’ll return to Spain and will be able to live this with the fans and return love and the warmth they’ve given us.”

Spain’s first Euro victory was in 1964, and they won consecutive titles in 2008 and 2012. Between those two editions, they claimed their first World Cup. With a side brimming with confidence, talent and youth, a second global crown must now be their target in 2026.

“First of all, we need to enjoy this victory at the Euros,” Williams said when pressed on the next step for Spain. “Two years, two very long years, but we will take things step by step.”For now, Spain’s last word has to be on Yamal and his sublime highlight-reel effort that curled into the top right corner to level the last four match with the French. It wrote the player, who turned 17 on Saturday, into the history books as the youngest scorer in Euro history.

“Lamine is incredible. … You’ve all seen him in this tournament,” Williams, a close friend, said. “He’s a good player and a great person. He’s got the prize for the best young player. The sky’s the limit for him.”

How do England recover from a Euro record they never wanted?

As Spain celebrated a fourth European Championship, England were left to rue what could have been for a second successive tournament.

Gareth Southgate’s team were dreaming of becoming their nation’s first winners of the continental title, but instead they became the first team to lose two consecutive Euro finals.

Defeat on penalties by Italy at Wembley Stadium in London at Euro 2020 was a hard pill to swallow, but the record bestowed upon them in Germany will hang heavily.

As much as Lamal and Williams were rightly lauded for their achievements, England’s squad is littered with world-class talent – and many of them are yet to reach their peak. The question now for England is, after watching the era of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard pass by with a whimper, how can they avoid a second failure of a golden generation?

The two appearances in the finals were firsts in the Euros for England, Sunday’s also being the first time England have reached a final on foreign fields – their 1966 World Cup win being achieved at Wembley.

The first answer that the English must provide is the future of the manager: Will Southgate be trusted or even want to attempt a run at a trophy when the 2026 World Cup comes around? Southgate cited the “lack of game time” that his captain, Harry Kane, had on entering the Euros as a reason why England didn’t see the best of their talismanic striker. He also spoke of the “fatigue” and the “extra-time periods” in the tournament that hit his side. Many pundits and fans, however, felt that England’s scramble throughout the tournament resulted from the restraint of the manager’s defensive mindset, which stunted Kane and allowed matches to drift beyond normal time.

With Manchester City’s Phil Foden, Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka playing in front of the incredibly gifted Declan Rice and Kobbie Mainoo, England should have a midfield to be feared the world over. At club level, there are few better, but, as has been the way for England since their 1966 triumph, the results and the performances have far from matched the expectations of a nation that boast the best domestic club competition in the world – and arguably have done since at least the early 1990s and the formation of the Premier League.

Ronaldo’s long Portugal goodbye may come to a swift end

As one star was born at the Euros in Yamal, so another may have faded. Time waits for no man – not even Cristiano Ronaldo. It would not be lost on the Portugal forward that as his Euro dream died, the player he vies with for the title of greatest of all time, Lionel Messi, was lifting another Copa America title with Argentina.

Ronaldo, at 39, was an isolated figure for the Portuguese despite playing the most outfield minutes of any player in the squad. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star entered the tournament with a record 130 international goals. He left it with the same tally. It was his sixth appearance at a European championship, at which he tops the scoring charts with 14 goals, ahead of French legend Michel Platini, who had nine to his name.

The two closest occasions Ronaldo came this time around to finding the back of the net were his penalty miss against Slovenia in the round of 16 and the skied effort before the defeat on penalties to France in the quarterfinals. The former left the forward in tears; the latter left his nation to follow suit.

Before the start of the competition, Ronaldo hinted it will be his final Euros. After a performance that was painful to watch, it may also have been his last appearance in a Portugal shirt.

Was Mbappe’s broken nose the cause of France’s shattered hopes?

The worst kept secret in world football last year was Kylian Mbappe’s transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid.

After the striker swapped France’s capital for Spain’s, it added a layer of intrigue and expectation to the 25-year-old’s performances at the Euros.

The French, defeated only by penalties in the World Cup final by Argentina, were the clear favourites to become kings of Europe, but the worst possible start ensued when Mbappe’s nose was broken in France’s opening match against Austria.

The striker sat out the match with the Netherlands in their second match, and his 56th-minute penalty in their final group game against Poland would be his only goal of the tournament.

When matched up against Ronaldo in the quarterfinals, both players stalled while the meeting with Spain, Mbappe’s new home and the first match he played without a face mask since his injury, saw Barcelona’s wonderkid Yamal steal the show.

Would Mbappe have led the French to their expected glory were it not for a broken nose? We can only speculate, but a new force in Europe is now recognised as the continent’s best as well as the current champions.

Politics and sport are never far from the news

Turkey fans were stopped from parading in by police in Berlin, before their team’s quarterfinal defeat by the Netherlands after some made a salute associated with a far-right movement.

It was the same gesture, according to police, that led to defender Merih Demiral being suspended for two games by UEFA after his celebration of his second goal in the round of 16 victory against Austria.

The “Grey Wolves salute” – the two middle fingers and thumb held together with the index and little finger raised to form a wolf’s head – is associated with an ultranationalist Turkish movement that Germany’s government considers racist and anti-Semitic.

“During the Turkish fans’ march, the ‘Grey Wolves salute‘ was made en masse. The police, therefore, stopped the march and urged the fans to stop making this sign,” the Berlin police force posted on the social media site X. “A fan march is not a platform for political messages.”

Demiral’s suspension permeated into a diplomatic row between Turkey and Germany.

Turkey summoned the German ambassador to Ankara in response to German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser condemning Demiral’s actions by saying, “The symbol of Turkish right-wing extremists has no place in our stadiums.”

Berlin did the same to Turkey’s ambassador the day after.

Even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got involved, defending Demiral by saying the defender merely expressed his “excitement” after scoring the game winning goal against Austria.

What turned out to be a terrific tournament for Turkey on the pitch ended up being overshadowed by controversial actions on the sidelines.