SCOUTED XI: Our UEFA U-21 EURO Team of the Tournament

England are back-to-back UEFA U-21 European Championship winners.

They are one of four nations to win back-to-back tournaments - along with Spain, Italy and the Netherlands - but the only to do it on two separate occasions. The Classes of ‘23 and ‘25 follow in the footsteps of the Classes of ‘82 and ‘84, back when the tournament was strung out over a couple of months and included a two-legged final. Weird, we know, but it was the 80s…

England clinched their fourth U-21 EURO title by beating Germany in a tense and dramatic final. They flashed into a 2-0 lead by the 24th minute and had opportunities to kill the game in the first half, such was their control of a fixture Germany comfortably won in the group stage—but that control waned as soon as Nelson Weiper slammed home a brilliant header just before half time.

Germany started the second half much the better side and got back on level terms on the hour mark through a crisp Paul Nebel strike. The game ebbed and flowed thereafter, ultimately petering out into a deadlock that was nearly broken by the nifty Nebel in the final minute of added time; his shot cracked the crossbar. The killer goal came less than two minutes into extra time, when substitute Jonathan Rowe stooped down to glance in a wicked Tyler Morton cross.

Let's give Lee Carsley his flowers. He will deflect any praise towards the players, as he always does and probably should, but to nurture a system and environment which wins the flagship youth international tournament in successive editions with entirely different groups (bar two players) deserves a lot of appreciation and respect.

Harvey Elliott was named the Player of the Tournament by UEFA. You sense the winner would’ve been Nick Woltemade had Germany triumphed in the final, but Elliott’s big-game performances made him a more than worthy winner. He scored crucial goals in all three knockout games, including both in a 2-1 win against the Dutch in the semi-final, and showed up when it mattered most.

The third Englishman to win the award after Mark Hateley and Anthony Gordon, the 22-year-old joins an esteemed list of winners.

The aforementioned Woltemade won the Golden Boot with a total of six goals. Only Sweden’s Marcus Berg (in 2007) and compatriot Gianluca Waldschmidt (in 2019) have scored more in the tournament since 2000. He raced into the lead with a hat-trick in Germany’s opener against hosts Slovakia, adding the other three against the Czech Republic, Italy and France.

What makes the U-21 EURO particularly interesting is that the vast majority of its participants are senior regulars already, making it an excellent opportunity to watch those that are already making a name for themselves across Europe - an opportunity we relished.

Our Team of the Tournament, broken down below, is the result of countless hours of watching matches and taking notes. Llew and Jake have barely slept. Tom is so burnt out he's given up entirely. But here we are, nonetheless: something resembling an end to the year's constant grind.

And what better way to celebrate it than with a SCOUTED XI of players you'll be seeing across senior football this season? Here it is: our glimpse of the present and the future, and the somewhat surprising winner of our Golden Ball.

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