A little update from the earlier post on top man at the European Championship.
Apparently, The Man doesn’t quite agree with me. We all certainly agree, at least, that Andres Iniesta is a special player worthy of special recognition. UEFA’s technical committee named the Barca midfielder (who played one of Spain’s hybrid winger-midfielder roles in Poland and Ukraine) its player of the tournament.
The story inked above is from Barcelona’s site; the next time you see the skillful Spaniard at work, it won’t be for Vicente del Bosque and their country. Rather, Iniesta will be back to work for Barcelona; the Catalan club’s first summer friendly is set for July 24 in Hamburg.
A Barca man won the same award at Euro 2008, when Spanish teammate Xavi Hernández directed his country to its first major title.
The technical committee also selected its all-tournament team for Euro 2012:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Ita), Iker Casillas (Spa), Manuel Neuer (Ger)
Defenders: Gerard Pique (Spa), Fabio Coentrao (Por), Philipp Lahm (Ger), Pepe (Por), Sergio Ramos (Spa), Jordi Alba (Spa)
Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi (Ita), Steven Gerrard (Eng), Xavi (Spa), Andres Iniesta (Spa), Sami Khedira (Ger), Sergio Busquets (Spa), Mesut Ozil (Ger), Andrea Pirlo (Ita), Xabi Alonso (Spa)
Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Ita), Cesc Fabregas (Spa), Cristiano Ronaldo (Por), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Swe), David Silva (Spa)