Even if Portugal does not win a second continental crown after that of 2016, Pepe, 41, a major player in winning the title in France, will leave Germany with a record. During Euro-2024, he will become the oldest player to play in a Euro in place of Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly, and his famous gray jogging pants, 40 years and 86 days when Hungary was eliminated by the Belgium (4-0) in the round of 16 of Euro-2016. Even more than for Ronaldo, Pepe’s mission in Germany is to share his experience with a talented young Portuguese generation who are advancing hidden behind the favorites France, England or Germany.
After the World Cup, Luka Modric’s international future seemed uncertain. A year later, the Croatian playing master, aged 38, is still there even though he has just extended his contract to Real Madrid. Often placed but never a winner (finalist in the 2018 World Cup, 3rd in the 2022 World Cup, finalist in the 2023 Nations League), Modric will probably have a final opportunity in Germany to bring back a big trophy to his country.
The German metronome Toni Kroos, 34, who announced his retirement this summer after Euro-2024 in his country, won at the beginning of June for his last match with Real Madrid, a fifth Champions League (plus one won with Bayern) adding to the 22 titles he won with the Merengue club. Pillar of the recent successes of the Spanish giant, the 2014 world champion wanted to stop at his best level, a choice unanimously welcomed in the world of football. All that remains is for him to finish, at 34, his incredible career with a new title with the Mannscha, at home no less.
A monument to the Blues will go away. Top scorer in the history of the French team with 57 goals, Olivier Giroud, 37, has decided to retire internationally at the end of Euro-2024, the end of his adventure in the selection of which he been one of the essential players for more than ten years. After Hugo Lloris and Raphaël Varane at the end of 2022, it is another pillar of Didier Deschamps’ group, crowned world champion in 2018 in Russia, who will say goodbye to the Tricolores. Not in football, since Giroud will join Lloris, his former captain in blue at Los Angeles FC, in MLS next season.
