There are few real stars around Europe who are truly unknown when it comes time for summer international tournaments summer anymore, at least not in the way used to be the case. Czech Republic and Euro ‘96 are a great case in point: few were familiar names before it, a whole raft of players were not just known, but sought-after, following their exploits there.
Modern accessibility to more matches and footage than ever before means some of that surprise element has departed, even if players can still come from nowhere to have a great summer with their national team.
