A feast of summer football will be more than enough to satisfy the fans’ appetites for the next few weeks as the European Championships gets ready to take over our lives until regular club action returns in earnest.
International football doesn't always get the plaudits it deserves nowadays but there are those who believe that it remains the most prestigious sphere in this day and age and with Euro 2016 hosting some of the best players, it is sure to tee up plenty of exciting moments, matches and goals to savour along the way.
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There are set to be some notable absentees at L’Hexagone but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of unfamiliar faces popping up to take their place and do the business. More intriguingly, though, we can all expect a barrage of talented starlets to look to capture the headlines.
So, who should we all be keeping tabs on throughout?
#1 Anthony Martial
There was very little for Manchester United fans to get excited about over the course of the 2015/16 Premier League season as Louis Van Gaal’s tenure lurched from one mediocre performance to the next, but a couple of promising takeaways from it all was the individual talents of a select few individuals – one of whom was Anthony Martial.
The France international contributed directly to 15 goals in the league with 11 strikes and four assists to his name and while that didn’t set England alight, it certainly underlined that he can score even when he’s playing in a side that aren’t complementing his strengths; imagine what he’ll do next season when he’s finally given the opportunity to let loose a little more under new boss Jose Mourinho.
As for the immediacy of this summer, he is definitely one to watch.
Normally played on the left of an attacking trio, or sometimes out very wide as a winger, the 20-year-old has proven himself to be rather adept at setting up his team-mates so Romania, Albania and Switzerland will all have to work overtime to try and stop the flow of distribution from that flank into the rest of the attackers if they want to give themselves a good chance of survival in the group stage.
He recently won the Premier League Twitter Goal Cup goal of the season, as voted for by fans, for his wonder strike against Stoke City so we could well see him do something similar in his homeland once the action tips off on June 10.
#2 Marcus Rashford
Roy Hodgson simply has to bring Marcus Rashford on the plane to France - if he doesn’t, he could grow to regret it.
A few short months ago, Rashford was a nobody in the world of football but he has quickly learned to deal with the pressures and expectations of professional football at the highest level. Not only that, but he is widely hailed as the face of the next generation of Manchester United fans and looks set to stay at the club for the foreseeable future. Even more impressively, he is now the youngest player to score on his England debut, per OptaJoe.
If the 18-year-old gets left out at the expense of either Wayne Rooney or the injury-plagued Daniel Sturridge, the youngster should rightly feel aggrieved. After all, he’s still a relatively unknown quantity and teams will struggle to learn too much about him between now and the start of the tournament (after all he's still earning about his own game himself), and that could play to England’s advantage moving forward.
Sure, he’s not the most experienced and he’s still largely unproven, but based on form alone, he deserves an inclusion. If he does go, we can pine for more swashbuckling, fearless attacking play; the sort of proactive football that gave United fans something to celebrate when all seemed lost can also give the Three Lions every chance of making it to the quarter finals and beyond.
The future is bright for this starlet. Let’s hope Hodgson doesn’t dull it for him.
#3 Alen Halilovic
Depending on whose word one takes for granted, there are countless players who could be seriously considered as the ‘next big thing’ in football. However, Alen Halilovic really does look like the real deal and he’ll be keen to have a big impact on the Euros with Croatia.
That he is the future of Barcelona, there is little doubt. However, whether he is ready to make the step up to the plate for the Catalan giants for next season, it’s not so sure.
He could return and become a bit-part player but many, much like Bleacher Report’s Rik Sharma, are convinced that he needs another season away, and at a bigger club.
Having spent a season on loan at Sporting de Gijon, the 19-year-old was allowed to spread his wings a little in La Liga but it was not the stand-out season many would have hoped for. Still, all is far from lost because it is very much early days for the youngster and with a big stage on the horizon he might just be saving his best performances for it; La Liga’s 2015/16 campaign could well have been a dress rehearsal, if you will.
Comparisons with Lionel Messi might have been well wide of the mark when he first surfaced but anyone who has seen him play will know that he has bags of potential – it’s only a matter of time before he opens them to deadly effect.
#4 Renato Sanches
His recent decision to snub Manchester United in favour of Bayern Munich caused quite the keyboard ruckus across social media accounts as people rushed to poke fun at the 13-time EPL winners, and although fans of the Red Devils won’t be at happy with it all, they will find it hard not to muster a smile when they see Renato Sanches in action in a few weeks.
To say he was key Benfica's mid-season revival would be putting it mildly because he was an absolute sensation for the Glorioso.
Having made his first-team debut in October 2015, his arrival as the focal point of their midfield hub coincided with a dramatic upturn in the team's form and fortunes, ultimately propelling them to the Portuguese Primeira Liga title.
The Portugal international is sure to be a big draw for true football fans across Europe because his style of play is a really exciting one. Possessing an ability to surge forward in a confident stride, his confidence manifests itself in not only the way he moves, but in the way he gets those around him motoring, too.
When he was with Benfica, he stole the show and while it’s not always so easy to transfer club form to the international stage, Sanches has the self-belief to give it a good go. Exciting.
#5 Federico Bernardeschi
He might not command the same levels of attention as some of the names on this list, but Federico Bernardeschi has all the right tools to have an explosive time with the Italians up front. A versatile attacker capable of playing on either flank as well as acting as the spearhead of the midfield, he’s got speed, flair and a degree of maturity which means he’s willing to play out of position for the betterment of the overall team.
His most eye-catching strength, however, is obviously his penchant for taking on defenders and that could well earn him a few more admirers over the summer months.
Incidentally, there has been plenty of talk ongoing about a potential move away from the Gigliati, and both Juventus and Manchester United are clubs who have been discerned through the din of daily rumours. If you’ve not seen the 22-year-old strut his stuff, then use those two interested parties as a measuring stick for how good he can be.
According to WhoScored, Bernardeschi gathered six goals and four assists across all competitions in the season just ended and while that could be improved, there is little doubt about his ability and that will shine through.
