This England midfielder caught our eye (no, not that one)

It’s that time of the year again… the men’s UEFA U-17 European Championship is back!

A significant change has been made since last year: UEFA have chopped the tournament in half. The organisers have reduced participation from 16 teams in four groups to eight in two. The change brings concentrates the quality somewhat and brings it in line with the under-19 version.

Even if more festival than bonanza, the UEFA U-17 EURO remains the tournament you have to keep abreast of if you want to be ahead of the curve on the future of European football. Every year provides a glimpse of future stars. Just look at our Team of the Tournament from the 2024 edition:

SCOUTED XI: Our UEFA U-17 EURO Team of the Tournament

A team of outstanding performers in Cyprus, put together by SCOUTED.

SCOUTEDStephen Ganavas

Rodrigo Mora is a regular at Porto and recently received his first senior international call-up; Mikey Moore is on the fringes of the Tottenham team; Francesco Camarda has been playing Serie A football all season; Mihajlo Cvetković has been bagging goals in Serbia and earnt a move to Belgium; the future is now.

Skip back to 2023 and the level of talent is even more stark. That year’s alumni includes, among others: Tyler Dibling, Archie Gray, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Finn Jeltsch, Geovany Quenda, Martim Fernandes, Lennon Miller, Andrija Maksimović, Pau Cubarsí, Jon Martín, and Lamine Yamal.

If you want to follow it, stick with SCOUTED – this is the first of a few long-form, player-centric reviews, in which we'll be picking a few notable names to go deep into, and will culminate in another Team of the Tournament.

If you want to watch it for yourself, the games are broadcast live on UEFA.tv in the UK.

Germany 0-3 France

Report by Llew Davies

France beat Germany in their UEFA U-17 EURO opener. A comfortable 3-0 win on the books, ensured by a Ilyas Azizi goal after just 44 seconds, another from Djyllian N’Guessan in the twelfth minute, and a Mussa Kaba red card that meant the Germans played two-thirds of the match with ten men.

But it was more competitive than that. While France did get off to a quick start and were good value for it, Germany went close to getting a goal back – largely through the attacking impetus of Lennart Karl – a few times and battled admirably in difficult circumstances.

There were eye-catching prospects across the pitch for the winners, but the one I’m going to focus on is their 16-year-old captain: Abdoulaye Camara.