Euro 2012 Player Profiles: Robin van Persie Leads The Netherlands

No matter how good of form Gomez has been in for his club throughout his career, he’s never been able to fully translate that over to the national side. It’s easy to say Gomez just hasn’t risen to the occasion when wearing the colors of Germany. Mario was part of the Germany team in Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010, but he failed to find the net in either competition. In fact, his ineptitude in front of goal in Austria/Switzerland was widely lampooned by the world media.

Germany has twenty one victories and one loss when Mario Gomez scores a goal. For Germany to reach their goal of winning the 2012 European Championship, Gomez is going to have score goals. They won’t be able to rely on a 34 year old Miroslav Klose to carry them through another tournament.

Russia kicks off their Euro 2012 campaign on Friday, and no one knows who is going to play in net. Igor Akinfeev, kept out of Russia’s last four Euro 2012 qualifying matches and most recent friendly through injury, could replace Vyacheslav Malafeev and claim his place as Russia’s starting goalkeeper once again.

Malafeev is a veteran goalkeeper and very reliable. He had a solid season and did nothing wrong during Russia’s build-up to the tournament. But he’s not going to put a team on his back and carry them past superior opposition; he’s just not that kind of keeper. Akinfeev is, but it’s questionable whether or not he’ll be at his best. He’s coming off a lengthy injury that kept him sidelined for seven months, and Dick Advocaat might opt to play it safe with Malafeev on Friday.

The second half of the 2009-10 season saw Ninis start to emerge as a top professional, as he helped Panathinaikos to a Greek Super League title a Europa League knockout stage victory over AS Roma. Heading into the World Cup, he appeared to be on the brink of super-stardom. He made just two appearances in that tournament, both as a substitute, and has had a very up-and-down run for club and country since then. He hasn’t reached the heights that were predicted for him back in his teenage years, but he’s fit for the first time in a long time, and could finally get the chance to prove that he can be a star on the senior level during Euro 2012.

Injuries have slightly derailed Ninis’ career during this past season. He made 21 starts in the league for Panathinaikos in the 2010-11 season, but just five starts in the 2011-12 season. In total, he played only one quarter of the minutes for his club team this season as he did in the previous season. This was mostly due to an injury which he sustained in September that kept him out until March.

Now here Keane stands at 31 years old, having left European football for MLS, and possibly playing in his last major international tournament. While his star is not out, it has dimmed and the end is coming. Euro 2012 may be the last time “Keano” stands in the spotlight, a spotlight that he has enjoyed for 14 years now in the Ireland shirt and one he has always relished.

Only one player has ever scored more goals than Keane in Euro qualifying, yet he has never played in the Euros. He’s done his part to try to get Ireland back to a World Cup, too, scoring four times in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and six more times in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup (and he did it without using his hands!).

Maggio’s indispensability to Napoli was easy to see this past season. During the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea, the wingback came off injured in the 36th minute. At that moment, Napoli supporters knew their dream of advancing to the next round was dead. Sure enough, Chelsea went on to win, 4-1. A Maggio-less Napoli then drew their next two matches, against Udinese and Catania. Maggio attempted a return in April, but came off in the 24th minute against Juventus, leaving his side to lose 3-0. When he was again healthy, Napoli won three of their four matches. Had Maggio been whole during that spring run-in, could Napoli have qualified for the Champions League once again? That’s something Napoli fans really don’t want to think about.

Christian Maggio

National Team: Italy

Make no mistake, though -- Ibra is not a simple poacher. This is a forward who will create goals from nowhere. They can come from a powerful shot thirty yards out. He’ll take the ball upfield to go one-on-one with a terrified goalkeeper. Or he’ll slot the ball in from such an impossible angle that you’ll be forced to watch again and again, wondering how the Swede has bent the laws of geometry.

Zlatan Ibrahimović

National Team: Sweden

But is this really what’s going on? Or are our eyes, slaves to our brain’s need for patterns and connections, deceiving us ever so slightly?

He had, however, represented Spain before: in 2005--the same year he was called up to Bilbao--he won the silver boot at the World Youth Championships, scoring five goals for la Rojita.