Schmeichel, Thuram, Blind, Chiesa, Hagi and Conceição head into the last 16. This is not nostalgia, an old goals tape discovered among the videos in the junk room; this is now. As the knockout round of Euro 2024 gets under way, Kasper, Marcus, Daley, Federico, Ianis and Francisco, sons of Peter, Lilian, Danny, Enrico, Gheorghe and Sergio, go in search of the chance to make their countries proud and their parents prouder. And to make everyone else feel very, very old, in the name of the father.
This is not the first time there have been footballers’ sons at the Euros – a goal from Federico Chiesa at Euro 2020, 25 years and 12 days after his dad, Enrico, scored at Anfield during Euro 96, made the Chiesas the first family to have two goalscoring generations in the competition – and some of these kids are not so young any more, a third generation on the way. Some are better than their dads were; some never will be. Daley Blind has 107 caps, 65 more than his father, Danny; “something we can both be proud of,” he says. Kasper Schmeichel is 37 and on 104 caps, closing in on his dad.
