EURO 2008: Players to watch

Showing posts with label Players to watch. Show all posts

Friday, June 6, 2008

Luca Toni

Luca Toni

The scoring machine paced the Bundesliga with 25 goals for Bayern Munich during this year's title-winning campaign. Two summers after the Azzurri captured their fourth World Cup title, the 31-year old striker will spearhead a three-pronged attack with wingers Antonio Di Natale and Mauro Camoranesi.

Christiano Ronaldo

Christiano Ronaldo

The charismatic right winger punched in 42 goals for Manchester United this past season, helping the Red Devils achieve a prestigious "double" by winning the English Premier League title in addition to the UEFA Champions League. With a dominant performance at Euro 2008, Ronaldo could secure a place for himself among soccer's all-time greats -- at just 23 years old.

Petr Cech

Petr Cech

The 6-foot-5, 191-pound goalkeeper is expected to assume the captain's armband with the Czech team having lost incumbent skipper Tomas Rosicky for the tournament to a hamstring injury. The Chelsea stopper surrendered just five goals during qualifying and provides an intimidating last line of defense for a country ranked sixth in the FIFA world rankings.

Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres

Torres arrived at Liverpool last summer as the storied English club's record signing and immediately lived up to advance billing, scoring 24 of his 33 goals in Premiership games to break Ruud van Nistelrooy's record for most league goals by a foreign player in a debut season. Having established himself as one of the world's most fearsome predators up front, the slippery 23-year-old striker hopes to lead Spain to its first European Championship title since 1964.

Frank Ribery

Frank Ribery

The creative, fast-paced playmaker just wrapped up a spectacular debut campaign with Bayern Munich, helping the German club win the Bundesliga while chipping in 11 goals. Still smarting from his country's World Cup disappointment two summers ago, the 25-year-old midfielder hopes to salve those wounds with France's third European Championship.