Euro 2016: Best XI comprising of team captains
Leading your national team in an international tournament is one of the biggest privileges in sport. They are players who've done it all, won all the accolades club football has to offer but wearing their national team’s jersey and leading out their players still makes them reverberate with emotion.
This article is dedicated to the players who have managed to consistently represent their country and rack up a multitude of appearances in the competitive times we live in. We’ve compiled an 11 from for the upcoming Euro 2016 in France, picked from the players who’ll be leading their countries in the tournament with a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
When Gigi Buffon retires, he may well be considered the greatest goalkeeper of all time. From the young, exuberant, and athletic young man who announced himself on the global stage as a 17-year-old at Parma – against a star studded AC Milan side, no less – to the 38-year-old maestro he is today. Fresh off a record-breaking season with Juventus, Buffon has seemingly done it all.
Apart from a few brief spells of bad form, Buffon has been magnificent for the entirety of his 21-year-old career. Even after turning out a staggering 157 times for Italy, he still bellows out his national anthem with visible pride, and will be looking to lead an otherwise underwhelming Italian squad to the latter stages of the tournament in France.