EURO Goal of the Tournament winners: every winning goal from 2012 to 2024

The EURO Goal of the Tournament is younger and messier than the World Cup version, and the list of EURO Goal of the Tournament winners is short: every edition since 2012 is on this page. UEFA has asked two different groups the same question, its technical observers and the fans, and in 2024 they gave different answers, as they probably did in 2016, though accounts of the observers’ pick differ.

The EURO 2020 Goal of the Tournament: Schick from 49.7 yards

The EURO 2020 Goal of the Tournament is the one most people remember, and the one with a number attached. On 14 June 2021, the Czech Republic’s opening match against Scotland at Hampden Park, Patrik Schick noticed David Marshall a long way off his line and shot from 49.7 yards. Opta logged it as the furthest goal at a European Championship since its data began in 1980, comfortably beyond Torsten Frings’s 38.6 yards for Germany in 2004.

UEFA’s technical observers, a panel that included Fabio Capello, David Moyes, Esteban Cambiasso and Roy Keane, chose ten goals for the shortlist. Fans then had just over 24 hours to vote, and nearly 800,000 did. UEFA announced the result on 14 July 2021: Schick first, Paul Pogba’s curler for France against Switzerland second, Luka Modrić’s outside-of-the-foot finish against Scotland third. Lorenzo Insigne, Kevin De Bruyne, Cristiano Ronaldo, Álvaro Morata, Mikkel Damsgaard, Andriy Yarmolenko and Federico Chiesa made up the rest of the list.

The EURO 2020 Goal of the Tournament came with a trophy of an unusual kind. The tournament sponsor Gazprom commissioned the artist Pokras Lampas, who built an installation of 432 calligraphic footballs in St Petersburg during the tournament, had it 3D-scanned on 27 June 2021 and turned into a digital piece, an NFT. According to the sponsor’s own releases, the digitised balls were then hidden around the eleven host cities for fans to find, and the finished trophy was presented to Schick on 15 October 2021.

Every EURO winner: 2012, 2016 and 2024

2012, Zlatan Ibrahimović. Sweden were already out when they beat France 2-0 in Kyiv, and Ibrahimović’s volley in the 54th minute took 39.9% in UEFA’s fan poll. Jordi Alba’s run and finish in the final against Italy was second on 17%, Mario Balotelli’s semi-final strike against Germany third.

2016, Zoltán Gera. Hungary drew 3-3 with Portugal in Lyon, and the 37-year-old Gera hit a half-volley from outside the area. He won the fans’ vote with 32% from a five-goal list, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (24%), Xherdan Shaqiri’s overhead kick against Poland (23%), Éder’s winner in the final (16%) and Hal Robson-Kanu’s turn against Belgium (5%). “Perhaps all Hungarians have voted,” Shaqiri said afterwards. Accounts differ over which goal the observers placed first; several give it to Shaqiri.

2024, Lamine Yamal and Mert Müldür. UEFA published the observers’ top ten on 16 July 2024 with Yamal first, for his goal in Spain’s 2-1 semi-final win over France on 9 July. He was 16 years and 362 days old, the youngest scorer in the competition’s history. Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick against Slovakia was second and Shaqiri, again, third. The fans went another way: Müldür’s volley in Türkiye’s 3-1 win over Georgia on matchday one topped their vote, with Yamal second and Arda Güler, scorer in the same match, third.

EURO Goal of the Tournament winners at a glance

The EURO Goal of the Tournament winners so far, every one listed with the group that decided it. Since 2016 the EURO Goal of the Tournament can have two names on it in the same year.

The next entry in the album belongs to EURO 2028 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the empty space is already on the page.