The best players who failed to qualify for Euro 2024

Carlo Garganese

Updated: 7 Jun 2024 17:19 BST
4 min read

The 24 countries who will take their place at Euro 2024 are now all settled.

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European football’s biggest international showpiece will kick off on June 14 and there will be a whole host of world-class footballers on show; from Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane to Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

But there are also a number of top-class players who will not be playing at the Euros.

This could be due to injury and suspension, due to retirement or because they are unfavoured by their national team coaches.

But some players are not going to Euro 2024 simply because their nations failed to qualify.

We run through some of the best players who fit into this category.

Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard (Norway)

Erling Haaland is now regarded as the best goalscoring striker in world football due to his devastating form for Manchester City and for Borussia Dortmund before that.

Martin Odegaard, meanwhile, is one of the best attacking midfielders not only in the Premier League but in all of Europe - a key player for Arsenal.

However, neither Haaland nor Odegaard will be at the Euros as Norway finished third in Group A behind Spain and Scotland, and didn’t even manage to earn a playoff spot.

Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres (Sweden)

It was a bad qualifying campaign for Scandinavia’s biggest nations as neither Norway nor Sweden failed to qualify for Euro 2024.

The Swedes finished third in Group F behind Belgium and Austria, finishing a full nine points behind the latter after claiming just 10 points from eight games.

This meant that one of Europe’s most prolific scorers this season in Viktor Gyokeres misses out on the Euros, as does Newcastle star attacker Alexander Isak.

Edin Dzeko (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Talking of star attackers, there will be no Euro 2024 for Bosnia legend Edin Dzeko.

Bosnia were forced to go through the playoff route after finishing fifth in Group J, claiming just three wins from 10 games.

They looked good to make the playoff final as they led Ukraine 1-0 at home with just minutes remaining. But they collapsed in the closing seconds, conceding twice to lose 2-1.

Albert Gudmundsson (Iceland)

Albert Gudmundsson has been one of the breakout stars of Serie A this season, lighting up the Italian top-flight for Genoa.

Blessed with brilliant dribbling ability and creativity, Gudmundsson is both a goal scorer and goal creator, and excels as a winger, an attacking midfielder or as a forward.

He almost single-handedly dragged an average Iceland team to the Euros. He scored a brilliant hattrick in the playoff semi-final win over Israel, and then put Iceland 1-0 ahead in the final versus Ukraine. However, the Ukrainians launched a later comeback to win 2-1 and put Iceland out.