Euro 2012 Rosters Released Under Racism Cloud

The final rosters from the 16 teams competing in next month’s European Championship in Poland and Ukraine were released Tuesday. UEFA has the final lists here, or see below. There were few surprises, as most teams had narrowed their rosters earlier.

For example, England Coach Roy Hodgson replaced the injured Gareth Barry with Everton’s Phil Jagielka and continued to pray that his team can avoid serious trouble until Wayne Rooney’s suspension ends. France Coach Laurent Blanc dropped the rusty midfielder Yoann Gourcuff, whose unpopular presence in the lineup at the 2010 World Cup had reportedly been one reason the team mutinied that summer. And Italy Coach Cesare Prandelli dropped one defender under investigation for match fixing, Domenico Criscito, but took another who is in the same boat, Leonardo Bonucci.

Prandelli also decided to include the controversy magnet Mario Balotelli on his team, after warning him to watch his temper and only hours after the BBC program Panorama broadcast a frightening report about the racism, violence and anti-Semitism that it said were common in stadiums in Poland and Ukraine, including some that will host games during Euro 2012. Before moving to England to join Manchester City, Balotelli was frequently booed by far-right fans of his old club, Inter, and of Italy’s national team. He told The Telegraph that he would walk off the field if he was subjected to racial abuse during the tournament, or worse.

“If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to jail, because I will kill them,” he said.

The families of several England players have said they will not travel to the tournament out of fear for their safety, and the former England defender Sol Campbell — appearing on Panorama — warned anyone else considering going to stay home. That drew angry responses from the host countries on Tuesday, who called the report insulting and xenophobic.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “Nobody who comes to Poland will be in any danger because of his race.”

“This is not our custom, as is not pointing out similar incidents in other countries, although we know they take place. In Poland, they’re a rarity,” he told a news conference in Rome.

In Kiev, Ukraine’s foreign ministry went further, saying the allegations were a “dreamed up and mythical problem.”

“You can criticize Ukrainian society for a lot of things … but, in the practice of racism, European Union member countries are a long way ahead of Ukraine,” the ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshyn said in comments reported by Interfax news agency.

The BBC video, of course, tells a different story, and if ultra-right fans have a problem with black players, maybe it’s them that should plan on staying home, since nearly every team in the field has at least one. The English, the French, the Germans, the Dutch — even the Czechs and the Danes, for Pete’s sake. This is what Europe looks like now.

Back to the rosters.

Ireland’s Robbie Keane is the only player from Major League Soccer on any of the rosters, but Sporting Intelligence breaks the teams down in any number of ways and teases out a few other interesting tidbits.

¶ England is the only team with an entirely home-based roster — all 23 players are employed by Premier League teams. (Russia and Ukraine are tied for second, with 21, and 20 of the Italians play in Italy.) In fact, 21 percent of the players in the tournament are based in England, and more than half of the total (368) compete in the continents’ big four leagues: England (79), Germany (48), Spain (33) and Italy (31).

From their article:

At the other end of the scale, no Irish players at all play their club football in Ireland. Only three of the Sweden team play in Sweden, only four of the Croatia team play in Croatia and only six of the Poland team play in Poland.

Sweden’s 23 players play in a remarkable 13 different leagues: in England, Germany, Italy, Russia, France, Greece, Netherlands, Turkey, Denmark, Scotland, Belgium, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. (Christian Wilhelmsson with Al-Hilal for those asking).

¶ Bayern Munich employs the most players (13), and Real Madrid is next (11). But Dynamo Kiev (10), Shakhtar Donetsk (8) and Zenit St. Petersburg (8) are also in the top 10, and CSKA Moscow had seven of its players included, showing the centralization of soccer talent in Ukraine and Russia.

The complete lists (via The Associated Press):

GROUP A
Czech Republic:
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech (Chelsea), Jaroslav Drobny (Hamburg), Jan Lastuvka (Dnipropetrovsk).
Defenders: Theodor Gebre Selassie (Liberec), Roman Hubnik (Hertha Berlin), Michal Kadlec (Bayer Leverkusen), David Limbersky (Viktoria Plzen), Tomas Sivok (Besiktas), Marek Suchy (Spartak Moscow).
Midfielders: Tomas Hubschman (Shakhtar Donetsk), Petr Jiracek (Wolfsburg), Daniel Kolar (Viktoria Plzen), Milan Petrzela (Viktoria Plzen), Vaclav Pilar (Viktoria Plzen), Jaroslav Plasil (Bordeaux), Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal), Vladimir Darida (Viktoria Plzen), Frantisek Rajtoral (Viktoria Plzen).
Forwards: Milan Baros (Galatasaray), David Lafata (Jablonec), Tomas Necid (CSKA Moscow), Tomas Pekhart (Nuremberg), Jan Rezek (Anorthosis Famagusta).
Greece:
Goalkeepers: Costas Chalkias (PAOK), Michalis Sifakis (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo).
Defenders: Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos), Jose Holebas (Olympiakos), Stelios Malezas (PAOK), Giorgos Tzavelas (Monaco), Yiannis Maniatis (Olympiakos), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke).
Midfielders: Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Costas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK), Costas Fortounis (Kaiserslautern), Yiannis Fetfatzidis (Olympiakos), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos), Grigoris Makos (AEK Athens).
Forwards: Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Dimitris Salpigidis (PAOK), Costas Mitroglou (Atromitos), Nikos Lymberopoulos (AEK Athens), Fanis Gekas (Samsunspor).
Poland:
Goalkeepers: Grzegorz Sandomierski (Jagiellonia Bialystok), Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal), Przemyslaw Tyton (PSV Eindhoven).
Defenders: Sebastian Boenisch (Werder Breman), Marcin Kaminski (Lech Poznan), Damien Perquis (Sochaux), Lukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund), Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht), Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw), Grzegorz Wojtkowiak (Lech Poznan).
Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Dariusz Dudka (Auxerre), Kamil Grosicki (Sivasspor), Adam Matuszczyk (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Adrian Mierzejewski (Trabzonspor), Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan), Ludovic Obraniak (Bordeaux), Eugen Polanski (FSV Mainz), Maciej Rybus (Terek Grozny), Rafal Wolski (Legia Warsaw).
Forwards: Pawel Brozek (Celtic), Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund), Artur Sobiech (Hannover 96).
Russia:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St. Petersburg), Anton Shunin (Dinamo Moscow).
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexei Berezutski (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat (Dinamo Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (Anzhi), Roman Sharonov (Rubin Kazan), Kirill Nababkin (CSKA Moscow).
Midfielders: Igor Denisov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Denis Glushakov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Igor Semshov (Dinamo Moscow), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow).
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St.Petersburg), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Stuttgart), Alan Dzagoyev (CSKA Moscow), Marat Izmailov, (Sporting), Alexander Kokorin (Dinamo Moscow).
GROUP B
Denmark:
Goalkeepers: Stephan Andersen (Evian), Anders Lindegaard (Manchester United), Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester).
Defenders: Lars Jacobsen (FC Copenhagen), Michael Silberbauer (BSC Young Boys), Simon Busk Poulsen (AZ Alkmaar), Daniel Wass (Evian), Simon Kjaer (Roma), Daniel Agger (Liverpool), Andreas Bjelland (FC Nordsjaelland), Jores Okore (FC Nordsjaelland).
Midfielders: William Kvist (Stuttgart), Christian Poulsen (Evian), Niki Zimling (Brugge), Jakob Poulsen (FC Midtjylland), Lasse Schone (Nijmegen), Christian Eriksen (Ajax).
Forwards: Dennis Rommedahl (Brondby), Tobias Mikkelsen (FC Nordsjaelland), Michael Krohn-Dehli (Brondby), Thomas Kahlenberg (Evian), Nicklas Bendtner (Sunderland), Nicklas Pedersen (Groningen).
Germany:
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover).
Defenders: Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund).
Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Mario Goetze (Borussia Dortmund), Ilkay Guendogan (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Real Madrid), Marco Reus (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Andre Schuerrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich).
Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio), Lukas Podolski (Cologne).
Netherlands:
Goalkeepers: Maarten Stekelenburg (Roma), Michel Vorm (Swansea), Tim Krul (Newcastle).
Defenders: Khalid Boulahrouz (Stuttgart), John Heitinga (Everton), Joris Mathijsen (Malaga), Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord), Wilfred Bouma (PSV Eindhoven), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Jetro Willems (PSV Eindhoven).
Midfielders: Ibrahim Afellay (Barcelona), Mark van Bommel (AC Milan), Nigel de Jong (Manchester City), Stijn Schaars (Sporting Lisbon), Wesley Sneijder (Inter Milan), Kevin Strootman (PSV Eindhoven), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham).
Forwards: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke), Luuk de Jong (FC Twente), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool), Luciano Narsingh (Heerenveen), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich).
Portugal:
Goalkeepers: Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon), Eduardo (Benfica), Beto (Cluj).
Defenders: Bruno Alves (Zenit St. Petersburg), Fabio Coentrao (Real Madrid), Joao Pereira (Sporting Lisbon), Pepe (Real Madrid), Rolando (FC Porto), Ricardo Costa (Valencia), Miguel Lopes (Braga).
Midfielders: Joao Moutinho (FC Porto), Miguel Veloso (Genoa), Raul Meireles (Chelsea), Ruben Micael (Zaragoza), Custodio Castro (Braga), Hugo Viana (Braga).
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Hugo Almeida (Besiktas), Helder Postiga (Zaragoza), Nani (Manchester United), Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas), Silvestre Varela (FC Porto), Nelson Oliveira (Benfica).
GROUP C
Croatia:
Goalkeepers: Stipe Pletikosa (Rostov), Danijel Subasic (Monaco), Ivan Kelava (Dinamo Zagreb.
Defenders: Domogoj Vida (Dinamo Zagreb), Vedran Corluka (Bayer Leverkusen), Josip Simunic (Dinamo Zagreb), Gordon Schildenfeld (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ivan Strinic (Dnipro), Danijel Pranjic (Bayern Munich), Jurica Buljat (Maccabi Haifa).
Midfielders: Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk), Tomislav Dujmovic (Real Zaragoza), Ognjen Vukojevic (Dynamo Kiev), Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Ivan Perisic (Borussia Dortmund), Niko Kranjcar (Tottenham), Milan Badelj (Dinamo Zagreb), Ivo Ilicevic (Hamburg).
Forwards: Ivica Olic (Bayern Munich), Nikica Jelavic (Everton), Mario Mandzukic (Wolfsburg), Eduardo da Silva (Shakhtar Donetsk).
Ireland:
Goalkeepers: Shay Given (Aston Villa), Keiren Westwood (Sunderland), David Forde (Millwall).
Defenders: Richard Dunne (Aston Villa), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Sean St. Ledger (Leicester), Darren O’Dea (Celtic), Stephen Ward (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Paul McShane (Hull)
Midfielders: Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Darron Gibson (Everton), Keith Andrews (West Bromwich Albion), Paul Green (no club), Damien Duff (Fulham), Aiden McGeady (Spartak Moscow), Stephen Hunt (Wolverhampton Wanderers), James McClean (Sunderland)
Forwards: Robbie Keane (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kevin Doyle (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Shane Long (West Bromwich Albion), Simon Cox (West Bromwich Albion), Jon Walters (Stoke).
Italy:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris Saint-Germain), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli).
Defenders: Cristian Maggio (Napoli), Ignazio Abate (AC Milan), Federico Balzaretti (Palermo), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Angelo Ogbonna (Torino).
Midfielders: Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Emanuele Giaccherini (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Thiago Motta (Paris Saint-Germain), Antonio Nocerino (AC Milan), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Alessandro Diamanti (Bologna).
Strikers: Antonio Cassano (AC Milan), Mario Balotelli (Manchester City), Sebastian Giovinco (Parma), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Fabio Borini (Roma).
Spain:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Victor Valdes (Barcelona).
Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Raul Albiol (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Jordi Alba (Valencia), Juanfran Torres (Atletico Madrid).
Midfielders: Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Cesc Fabregas (Barcelona), Juan Mata (Chelsea), Santi Cazorla (Malaga).
Forwards: David Silva (Manchester City), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Fernando Torres (Chelsea), Jesus Navas (Sevilla), Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona), Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla).
GROUP D
England:
Goalkeepers: Robert Green (West Ham), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Jack Butland (Birmingham)
Defenders: Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Leighton Baines (Everton), Phil Jones (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool).
Midfielders: Stewart Downing (Liverpool), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Scott Parker (Tottenham), Ashley Young (Manchester United), Theo Walcott (Arsenal).
Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Andy Carroll (Liverpool).
France:
Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Cedric Carrasso (Bordeaux).
Defenders: Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valence), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille), Anthony Reveillere (Lyon).
Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Samir Nasri (Manchester City), Alou Diarra (Marseille), Yann M’Vila (Rennes), Blaise Matuidi (PSG), Marvin Martin (Sochaux).
Strikers: Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle), Karim Benzema, (Real Madrid), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Jeremy Menez (PSG), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille).
Sweden:
Goalkeepers: Andreas Isaksson (PSV Eindhoven), Johan Wiland (FC Copenhagen), Par Hansson (Helsingborg).
Defenders: Mikael Lustig (Celtic), Olof Mellberg (Olympiakos), Andreas Granqvist (Genoa), Martin Olsson (Blackburn), Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion), Mikael Antonsson (Bologna), Behrang Safari (Anderlecht).
Midfielders: Rasmus Elm (AZ Alkmaar), Sebastian Larsson (Sunderland), Anders Svensson (Elfsborg), Kim Kallstrom (Lyon), Pontus Wernbloom (CSKA Moscow), Samuel Holmen (Istanbul), Emir Bajrami (Twente), Christian Wilhelmsson (Al Hilal)
Forwards: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan), Johan Elmander (Galatasaray), Tobias Hysen (IFK Goteborg), Ola Toivonen (PSV Eindhoven), Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen).
Ukraine:
Goalkeepers: Oleksandr Goryainov (Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk).
Defenders: Bohdan Butko (Illychivets Mariupil), Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Taras Mikhalik (Dynamo Kiev), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Selin (Vorskla Poltava), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk).
Midfielders: Olexandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kiev), Oleh Gusev (Dynamo Kiev), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Serhiy Nazarenko (Tavriya Simferopol), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Bayern Munich), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kiev).
Forwards: Andriy Voronin (Dinamo Moscow), Marko Devic (Metalist Kharkiv), Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kiev), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kiev).