If you are a football fan in any capacity, one of the most enjoyable things about the buildup to the Euros is the anticipation around the World Champions. That is if the World Champions are from Europe (you won’t get it if you don’t get geography jokes).
Take the interest around the French national side. Football media and fans salivate every time they hear anything about France. If they are on social media, their brain has just one instruction for their fingers touching the screens or keyboards, ‘just do it.’ Even Nike won’t have any issues with that, given that they are the official kit sponsors of the world champions.
But, back to the point. France may be getting more share of the hype light, especially in a pandemic world where sports is one of the few positive things to talk about, but this isn’t the first time that world cup winners have been handed the ‘big favorites’ tag ahead of the Euros.
Even though national squads in football are volatile and a lot can change in a short period, a World Cup to Euro two-year window (in this case three) is considered a great opportunity for an established squad to repeat success. No changes in the management and the core group of players also help.
However, history suggests it hasn’t been the easiest task to do so. In the eight instances since the inception of the European Championships, only twice has a World Cup-winning European side won the continental cup.
*West Germany united with East Germany in October 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and played Euro 1992 as Germany.
France (1998-2000) were the first team to complete the World and Euro double. A team that featured Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Michel Platini, Robert Pires, Laurent Blanc, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, and Didier Deschamps who had taken the captain’s armband from Platini. The team that defeated the 1994 World Cup winners (Brazil) and runner-ups (Italy) to claim the world title have a place of their own in the game’s history. Out of the 22 member Les Bleus squad for Euro 2000, 19 featured in the World Cup-winning squad of 1998. Nine of them played in both the finals. The only new names were Johan Micoud, Christophe Dugarry, and one Nicolas Anelka.
Spain on the other hand completed the triplet of Euro-World Cup-Euro from 2008 to 2012. ‘The golden generation’ under Vicente del Bosque, powered by their reliance on the ideology of short passes and beautiful build-up plays. Even though quite a few tweaks were made from 2008 to 2012, ‘La Furia Roja’ managed to keep intact its core group of players who were pivotal to the side’s functioning. 10 players featured in all three squads from 2008 to 2010 to 2012, seven of whom played in all three finals. Seven out of eleven!
Apart from the two winners, West Germany were able to make it as runner-ups in 1976 and 1992. The point to remember here is that the tournament was expanded from four to eight teams in 1980 and eight to 16 in 1996. And the fact that none of the world champions from Europe were able to repeat success two years later in a four or eight-team tournament just tells us that it isn’t that straightforward. Italy failed to qualify for the Euros in 1984 after winning the 1982 World Cup.
If they are able to pull it off, they’d become the first team to achieve the double twice. Didier Deschamps would become the first to win both World Cup and Euros as a player (captain) and a coach.
But if they don’t, one shouldn’t blame them for it. For if winning the Euros, a four-team competition hosted in one country wasn’t possible after winning the World Cup, winning a 24-team Euro Cup hosted in 11 cities across the continent during a pandemic won’t be a simple geography joke.
Don’t know football could help with enhancing geography skills as well.. good one
Maybe worldcup winner’s doesn’t timely recovers from hangover😛