Lisbon (AFP) – Portugal's Euro 2016 winner Joao Mario was included by coach Fernando Santos on Thursday in the squad for next month's fixtures which include two World Cup qualifiers. The Benfica midfielder, 28, won the last of his 45 caps in October 2019 alongside Leicester left-back Ricardo Pereira, who played his most recent international […]

Nyon (Switzerland) (AFP) – Liverpool led English clubs in taking the lion's share of the 150 million euros ($162 million) compensation handed out by UEFA for freeing players for Euro 2016. Yet while 60 English clubs shared 38.2 million euros ($41.3 million), Icelandic clubs whose country humiliated England at the tournament got just 118,712 euros. […]

Paris (AFP) – Hosting the Euro 2016 football tournament cost France less than 200 million euros ($211 million) but brought some 1.22 billion euros into the country, according to figures released by the ministry of sports Tuesday. There was controversy over the public funds poured into the tournament, with some 24 million euros — double […]

Aix-en-Provence (France) (AFP) – Three Russians jailed in France following clashes with England fans before their Euro 2016 match in June will be released from prison and deported next month, a lawyer said on Wednesday. The trio, who filed a request for conditional freedom, will be released on January 9 and expelled January 16, said […]

Berlin (AFP) – Lukas Podolski believes Germany wasted their chance to lift the Euro 2016 title and admits he was sad to see Portugal win the final of the European championships. The 31-year-old Galatasaray striker announced his retirement from international football on Monday, having scored 48 goals in 129 appearances for Germany, and was in […]

  As Christopher Harris reported here at World Soccer Talk, the final ratings for Euro 2016 were, much like the quality of play, decent but not spectacular. Copa América Centenario, thanks to Univision’s reach and the USMNT’s run, captured a slightly bigger audience. But by putting the numbers for the two tournaments into context, we […]

London (AFP) – Wayne Rooney has blamed England's Euro 2016 humiliation on Roy Hodgson's unsuccessful selection gamble. Hodgson made six changes for England's final group match against Slovakia and the subsequent goalless draw cost England first place in their group. England captain Rooney was one of those rested by Hodgson and the Manchester United forward […]

London (AFP) – New England manager Sam Allardyce told his players to use their shock Euro 2016 exit at the hands of Iceland as motivation for the future on Saturday. The 61-year-old was named on Friday as the successor to Roy Hodgson, who resigned after his team bowed out of the Euros in France with […]

The world of sport has been truly blessed in the year of 2016, I don't think anyone can argue that. But more importantly the game of soccer, the Beautiful Game if you will, has been completely transformed. Just like 2010 gave us tiki-taka, 2016 has given us hope. Whether you're a player or a fan, […]

Didier Deschamps could not have mismanaged his France team any worse than he did at the Euros. First, after late winners obscured two otherwise unconvincing performances that brought his team safe passage to the knockout phase of the tournament, Deschamps was presented with a golden opportunity: a quasi-dead-rubber match, against Switzerland, to settle on a formation […]

Paris (AFP) – Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale headlined a 10-man shortlist announced on Monday for the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. Ronaldo struck the winning spot-kick as Real claimed an 11th Champions League title, beating city rivals Atletico Madrid on penalties in May, before leading his country to Euro […]