“If you’re Sterling or Grealish, you can’t keep a kid going.” The controversy over the penalty kicks of the Euro 2020 final in England stems from this sentence by Roy Keane, former Manchester United flag and now sports commentator.
Keane, like many others on social media, believes that the English national team has paid for the young age of the players chosen to shoot from the spot. In particular that of Bukayo Saka, just nineteen. It was he who missed the decisive penalty, the one saved by Donnarumma that triggered the blue party.
Keane’s observation is based on a reasoning repeated to exhaustion by those who comment on football, which is to say that sometimes experience matters more than talent. Especially in the international arena, when you face top-level champions and the responsibilities are overwhelming.
In this case, there are those who have gone beyond the terrain of opinions, trying to put together data and statistics that prove Roy Keane right, or that disavow his claim. Former Liverpool talent Michael Owen, for example, recalled on social media the names and ages of some English internationals who missed a penalty, in major international competitions, starting with Italy 90.
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