With the UEFA Champions League all done and dusted, the stage is all clear and set for Euro 2016 to become the main event. Most of the squads are ready to go for the finals, and we have you covered with plenty of coverage, analysis and opinion in the build-up to, and during, the biggest football attraction of the summer.
Recently here at Sportskeeda we compiled a shortlist of the youngsters to keep an eye out for, but who are we all going to miss the most? Which big stars are not going to feature and will their absence detract from the spectacle?
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Let's take a look.
Diego Costa
His enemies celebrated his exclusion from the Spain squad. His teammates were left disappointed.
Through all the emotion, it was clear that Diego Costa had been left out due to a season which saw him fall well below his usually impressive form, as Chelsea lost sight of their Premier League crown in an embarrassing, and unprecedented, fashion.
However, does he really deserve to go to France any less than Nolito? A quick look at the statistics shows that the recalcitrant striker actually contributed directly to 23 goals across all competitions for Chelsea (16 strikes and seven assists), while the Celta Vigo star contributed to 19 (12 goals and seven assists). Meanwhile, Lucas Vazquez netted just four times, picking up eight assists.
Sure, these guys add different elements to La Furia Roja’s game-plan and have played marginally less matches but Costa is a far superior marksman who can not only rattle the net, but also the opposition. Moreover, he adds a unique steeliness to their team that only he can contribute, and they could well rue his exclusion if they find themselves in a real dogfight.
Looking at the cold, hard facts it’s pretty clear that Costa was hard done by and should have been selected.
Sebastian Giovinco
Major League Soccer doesn’t quite have the level of appeal many American and Canadian fans would like it to have on a global scale, and it’s often viewed as a retirement league for so many of Europe’s departed stars.
Whether or not that’s an entirely fair assessment is a debate for another day but what’s a little less ambiguous is how talented Sebastian Giovinco is and to see him fail to make the cut for Italy’s squad was a disappointment, even for neutrals.
National team boss (and incoming Chelsea manager) Antonio Conte cited the quality of MLS as his reasoning behind the omission, but Giovinco didn’t seem entirely fazed by it, opting instead to remain focused on improving his abilities as a footballer instead of getting vexed about missing out, as reported by Goal.
So far this season the 29-year-old has eight goals and five assists to his name in the league and has looked as sharp as ever in front of goal so it was obviously a surprise to see him left out in the cold by the coach. Indeed, one has to wonder if he’s not being considered now will he even get a mention in another four years when he is 33?
Andrea Pirlo
Undoubtedly one of the best passers of a ball that the game has ever seen, Andrea Pirlo has lit up football with some many of his elegant touches throughout his glittering career. Far more than a footballer, the ex-Juventus man is a philosopher, a poet and someone who transcends the sport with a refined culture.
On his day, he reads the game like no-one else and has a certain panache that will be missed from the sport when he does eventually retire – which is precisely why we all need to drink in as much of his genius as possible while he’s still going. So, when news hit that he wouldn’t feature at the Euros, a lot of people were more than a little upset.
Sure, he is 37 years of age and has been away from the continental game for a while, but Pirlo is Pirlo and to be cheated of his presence just seems wrong.
It would be like watching a Champions League game where Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t score or going to a Donald Trump rally and not hearing him say something really, really stupid. It’s just not right.
Why, only last season he was competing in a UCL final.
Mark Noble
What does Mark Noble have to do to get selected for England?
After a splendid season with West Ham United where the Hammers exceeded expectations to push in the league, aided by his seven goals, the 29-year-old could not have done much else to warrant inclusion in Hodgson's plans but alas he was denied the chance yet again, leading some to speculate whether he might be better off teaming up with the Republic of Ireland national team in order to boost in international hopes.
To not even get selected for the provisional squad was nothing short of an insult, especially with Jack Wilshere and Fabian Delph getting chosen ahead of him. Because even though he has no caps, he deserves to.
Slaven Bilic, while biased, made a great point about why his player should have made the final cut (long before the news emerged):
I was an international coach for six years and the national team is not about the 23 best players in one country. It's also a team, especially in the big tournaments where they are together for six weeks. It needs atmosphere and everything -- stars and lesser stars and all that. Mark is a great person also. He's playing great. He could help England.
Again, Noble will spend his summer plonked in front of the telly watching his colleagues take part in a theatre of football. His manager can only hope he doesn’t grow to seriously regret a very questionable decision.
Fernando Torres
He is not the same player he was at the very peak of his natural powers, but Fernando Torres should be going to take part in France.
What he has lost in pace, stamina and consistent goal-scoring, the Atletico Madrid man more than makes up for in heart, courage and experience. Not only this, but he can still play at the highest level and in a system that values team principles over that of the individual, something which when levels are low and morale in decline, can be of far more benefit than a flashy performer in a taxing tournament.
Under Diego Simeone, he has developed into a very different sort of player to the one so many fell in love with in his younger days but to equate that with a decrease in overall ability would be a mistake and it appears that is precisely what has happened with Vicente del Bosque.
Much like the Costa case, Torres has had a far better season than people think (and one infinitely better than the ones picked to go ahead of him). He played a major role in helping Atleti push both Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga and he was one of their best players en route to the European Cup final in Milan.
His absence is nothing short of a travesty.
