Football stars to miss the UEFA Euro 2024

The UEFA Euro 2024 will be the 17th edition of the competition. Germany will host the tournament this time, which is set to take place from 14 June to 14 July 2024. However, several important and high-profile players are set to miss the competition as their respective national sides couldn't get past the qualification stages. One of them is Man City forward Erling Haaland as Norway finished third in the Group A points table of the qualifiers. In this article, we'll look at the star players who will miss the upcoming Euro 2024 in Germany.

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Star Footballers to miss the UEFA Euro 2024

Erling Haaland - Norway 

Norway Football team's hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2024 were ended by Spain on October 15, 2023. A few days later, their play-off chances were ended too. But, Norway were eliminated long before when they suffered a 2-1 loss at home to Scotland. Erling Haaland wasn't available in that match as the match was just one week after the Champions League final in Istanbul. Norway finished third in the Group A points table of the Euro qualifiers and The Scandinavians' hopes of playing in the Euros ended.

Aleksei Miranchuk - Russia

Since February 2022, FIFA and UEFA imposed a ban on all Russian club and national teams featuring in the competitions following Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Russia were not involved in Euro 2024 qualifiers because of the ban and they are set to miss the tournament in Germany. Aleksei Miranchuk, the 28-year-old star midfielder who plays for Atalanta scored the winner against Finland in the previous Euros. Russia had qualified for six of the previous seven European Championships since becoming a FIFA member ahead of Euro '96.

Evan Ferguson - Ireland

Ireland failed to qualify for Euro 2024, after finishing second-bottom in their group with six points from eight matches. Their two wins came against last-placed Gibraltar and ended their qualification campaign with a 1-0 defeat away to the Netherlands. Evan Ferguson, the 19-year-old Brighton striker sustained an injury that ruled him out of his national team's Euro 2024 qualifying games against France and Netherlands. It is a huge miss for a talent like Evan Ferguson to not appear in a competition like the Euros.

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Victor Lindelof, Dejan Kulusevski, Alexander Isak - Sweden

Victor Lindelof, a defender of Manchester United is another player whose face the football fans will be missing in the upcoming Euros. Sweden finished third in their qualifying group F, nine points behind second-finished Austria. It is not like Sweden is a weak team or anything but they still failed to qualify. Victor Lindelof is the captain of the side and he was not able to lead the team to the upcoming competition. Sweden didn't perform like the fans expected. They have players like Isak, Kulusevski, and Forsberg but still couldn't manage to get past the qualifying stage. This is the first time since 1996 that Sweden have failed to qualify for a European Championship.

Konstantinos Tsimikas - Greece

Greece lost to Georgia 4-2 on penalties in the final of the Euro 2024 play-off which means they will not progress to the competition despite delivering a strong performance in the semi-finals against Kazakhstan. Georgia had never won against Greece and had never reached the finals of any major competition, while Greece had not made it to the finals of a major tournament since Brazil in 2014. Greece's elimination also means that Liverpool's defender Konstantinos Tsimikas will also miss the Euros.

Eljif Elmas - North Macedonia

North Macedonia failed to make the EURO 2024 finals that will start in Germany in June. They were eliminated in a tough qualifying group. England and defending champions Italy were the best two teams from Group C and they booked their places in the competition. North Macedonia qualified for the EURO 2020 to make history but they were eliminated at the group stage after losing to the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Austria. Eljif Elmas, a key player of Macedonia later said that he still dreamt of playing in another huge competition with his national team. Elmas has appeared in 58 games for North Macedonia and scored 12 goals for his country since making his debut in 2017.

Teemu Pukki - Finland

Wales beat Finland in the semi-finals of the Euro 2024 qualifiers by 4-1 to knock them out of the competition. Teemu Pukki did score in the game but ended on the losing side. Pukki led them to Euro 2020 but Finland knocked out off the group stage after losing to Denmark and Belgium. But, this time they are going to miss the tournament after delivering a horrible performance in the semi-finals of the qualifiers against Wales.

Ethan Ampadu - Wales

Ethan Ampadu who recently appeared in his 51st match with the national side, will miss the upcoming Euros in Germany after Wales' elimination from the finale of the qualifiers. Wales missed out on qualification for Euro 2024 after suffering a penalty shootout defeat in their play-off final against Poland in Cardiff. It could have been Ampadu's first huge tournament with his national side but unfortunately will have to wait for now. Wales qualified for the Euro 2020 and even got past the group stage but were eliminated in the round of 16 after losing by 4-0 to Denmark.