A glance at the scorers’ rankings is enough. When looking at who is the most prolific at Euro 2024, the names of Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé are nowhere to be found. Romelu Lukaku does not appear there either, he who was rejected three times by the VAR. With six goals, it is CSC (against his camp) who sits in the lead.
The French notably retained Maximilian Wöber’s uncrossed header when the Blues entered the fray against Austria (1-0). The Turks are still dwelling on Samet Akaydin’s missed pass against Portugal last Saturday (3-0). An own goal was even scored for four days in a row, from June 17 to 20. A first in the history of the European Championships.
A trend already present at the last Euro
Among the goals scored – the figure is as of June 23 – CSC’s share represents 9.38% of the total. A high figure, but not unusual compared to recent international competitions. “The question of the proportion of CSC goals already arose in 2018, where 12 goals were scored in this way out of 169, or 7% of achievements,” recalls Data Scout, an X account specializing in advanced statistics and player analysis. At Euro 2021, 7.75% of goals – 11 out of 142 – were CSCs. “In the Champions League and the Premier League, we observe percentages of between 2 and 3%,” he quantifies.
If this differential is partly explained by a smaller sample of matches than in the championship, the inflation of CSC remains recent at the Euro level. Since 1960, only 26 achievements of this type have been recorded by UEFA.
Everything has accelerated from 2021. The Euro three years ago and the current one in fact concentrate 65% of CSC goals in the history of the competition. “One might be tempted to say that the increase in pace and play per match favors this increase. But we must remain careful,” recalls the Data Scout account.
The statistics from the 2022 World Cup clearly illustrate an element of variability and chance. During the last World Cup, only Moroccan Nayef Aguerd and Argentinian Enzo Fernandez scored their own nets. It is therefore difficult to find a direct cause and effect link to explain this increase. In the meantime, the player who would like to take CSC’s first place in the scorers’ ranking will have to work hard. Never a scorer in a Euro, Kylian Mbappé could perhaps add to his score, if he is present against Poland, Tuesday (6 p.m.), for the third match of the Blues.
