Torres gilds the lily with the Golden Boot award
... but fails to make UEFA’s 23-man squad selection
Spanish striker Fernando Torres won the Golden Boot award for top scorer at Euro 2012 edging out Germany’s Mario Gomez, UEFA announced yesterday.
The 28-year-old – whose goal in the 4-0 win over Italy in the final made him the only player to score in two Euro finals – like Gomez scored three goals and provided one assist during the tournament.
However, UEFA gave it to him on the tiebreak of having had less game time during the finals, the Spaniard having had 189 minutes on the pitch compared to Gomez’s 280.
Four other players also ended up with three goals, Italian striker Mario Balotelli, Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo, rising Russian star Alan Dzagoev and one of the revelations of the tournament, Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic.
For Torres it sees him complete an incredible latter part of the 2011/12 season where he also collected FA Cup and Champions League winners medals with Chelsea having been all but written off for the majority of the campaign as he failed to fire for the English club.
However, there was to be a let-down for the former Atletico Madrid and Liverpool star as he missed out on being named in the 23-man squad of the championship named by UEFA later in the day.
While he came on as a substitute during the final – he also set up Juan Mata for the fourth and final goal – right-back Alvaro Arbeloa was the only one of the starting XI against Italy who failed to make the UEFA squad.
The squad was selected by a UEFA-approved 11-man technical committee.
“Football is like this,” Torres said.
“This is my third Euros, in the previous ones I played almost all the games and scored two goals. In this one I have played less but won the Golden Boot.
“Football can be just or unjust like that depending how you look at it and that is why we like it so much.”
Best squad
Goalkeepers
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Manuel Neuer (Germany).
Defenders
Gerard Pique (Spain), Fabio Coentrao (Portugal), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Pepe (Portugal), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Jordi Alba (Spain).
Midfielders
Daniele De Rossi (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Xavi (Spain), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Sami Khedira (Germany), Sergio Busquets (Spain), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Xabi Alonso (Spain).
Forwards
Mario Balotelli (Italy), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), David Silva (Spain).