European Football’s Under the Radar Heroes for 2016

When you look back on a highlight reel of 2016, the usual suspects will feature prominently. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi continued to raise the bar, Real Madrid and Barcelona dominated in Spain and Europe, while a Ronaldo-inspired Portugal claimed the European Championship.

But scratch a little below the surface and there are many unsung heroes, and as the year draws to a close, here are some of the names worthy of attention.

Pepe (Real Madrid/Portugal, defender)

OK, so he isn’t exactly the sort of player to keep a low profile, but just how important Pepe has been for club and country over the past 12 months has been understated. His 2016 may be remembered by many for the disdainful look he received from referee Mark Clattenburg in the Champions League final after he threw himself to the ground after contact with Atletico Madrid’s Yannick Carrasco (as this example in the Guardian reminds us).

The bottom line, though, is that he helped to make his team(s) winners. When Atleti pushed in the second half of the final in Milan, Pepe helped El Real to hold firm. He was similarly resolute in Portugal’s victorious European Championship run in France, missing just one game, and again as part of a team that concentrated on defending first. As his 34th birthday approaches apace (with his Madrid contract running down), Pepe’s poise and judgement make him still one of the best centre-backs of an era hardly overwhelmed with elite central defenders.

Niko Kovac (Eintracht Frankfurt, head coach)

When Kovac was appointed in March, there were hardly ticker-tape fanfares. He arrived with only one experience in a head coach’s role—an often-difficult spell in charge of Croatia, which ended after a miserable Euro 2016 qualifying defeat in Norway last September. Moreover he took the helm of an Eintracht side in free fall. They lost four of Kovac’s first five games in charge, and they looked doomed to relegation.

Three late wins got Kovac and company to the brink of safety, but a late goal conceded at basement rivals Werder Bremen on the final day condemned them to play a relegation play-off with Nurnberg. On the eve of the two-leg tie, it was announced that skipper Marco Russ was suffering from cancer.

Yet Kovac saw his side through. Remarkably (with Russ now on the mend), he has shaped a competitive side after little spending but with the benefit of a full pre-season. They stand fourth at the winter break and Kovac was recently rewarded with a contract extension through to 2019 (announced in enigmatic style by the club on Twitter).

#KOVAC2019 pic.twitter.com/jtWlFHnrOP

— Eintracht Frankfurt (@eintracht_eng) December 8, 2016

Volkan Babacan (Istanbul Basaksehir, goalkeeper)

There has been much talk about the rise of the …

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