Why we're still obsessed by Euro2000

With the Euros in a fever waiting for the Final, it’s hard not to look back and reminisce about past tournaments that left a lasting impression on us as football fans. We often romanticise the ones we were most emotionally invested in, typically from our childhood, when our young, impressionable minds absorbed every minute detail. From iconic moments like Antonín Panenka's cheeky chip over West Germany’s goalkeeper in 1976, forever etching his name into football vocabulary, to Gazza’s infamous “dentist chair” celebration against Scotland in 1996, it’s hard to pick THE iconic euro’s tournament or moment.

For me, however, there is no disputing which tournament wins out in terms of aesthetics. This may stem from my childhood attachment, holding onto this view twenty-four years later, but I’m sure it’s a big reason why people always come back to Euro2000 as the best of all. The tournament had everything: Spain’s incredible comeback against Yugoslavia, shock exits (sorry, Phil Neville and England), Holland missing five penalties in one match in the semi-final, and the tournament ending with a dramatic golden goal. Euro 2000had it all. Yet, it is the aesthetics that, for me, set it apart from all the others.

We were fast approaching what felt like a space race in terms of technology and football, which resulted in the multi-paneled, mesh-fest that football kits became in the late 2000s. This evolution arguably kicked off with Kappa’s Kombat range for Italy. This kit and those at the tournament in general, would set the tone for kits in the 2000s. Kappa didn’t stop there, either, introducing now-iconic tracksuits and the obscure oversized hockey-style team warm up tops, like the one Maldini wore before one of their matches.

But Euro2000 was much more than that in terms of equipment. The adidas Predator was at its peak, with Rui Costa, Zidane, and Del Piero all showcasing their skills in the oversized tongue boots that were the rage that summer. Nike had debuted the first generation of their new Total90 Zoom Air boot, launched alongside the memorable ninja-inspired ad "The Mission." This period also saw the introduction of Nike's Cat ID, aka the ‘Nike Football logo,’ which became synonymous with the brand in the 2000s and ushered in a more mature feel for football branding. 

Headbands, this is the tournament that the headband truly arrived onto the world stage in football. Totti was the poster boy with his white band, but we also saw the likes of Nuno Gomes, Adrian Mutu and Zlatko Zahovic donning the seasons must have accessory. While Sergio Conceicao sported a look twenty years before Jack Grealish would make it his own, with his blonde frosted tips and headband combo. Lastly, Fabio Cannavaro and Clarence Seedorf opted for a more tennis-style look with a chunkier headband. You could argue this tournament was the peak for the headband.

Personal style was a significant theme for this tournament. Beyond headbands, a couple of signature looks were born at Euro2000. On doctors’ orders, and slightly before the tournament kicked off, Edgar Davids cemented himself as one of the iconic players of his era when he debuted his goggles on the world stage. We've seen plenty of players bleach their hair, but few would go as far as bleaching their beard too, as Abel Xavier did, creating a look that became his signature. And let’s not forget that David Beckham made national news by shaving off his famous curtains on the eve of the tournament, a fitting way to put to rest the official haircut of the 1990s.

At the risk of concluding this lamenting the lost innocence in the aesthetics of the modern game, many of these points highlight the foundation on which much of what we see today has been built. Players were beginning to understand the power of their image more than ever before, and the big brands were still establishing their marketing narratives and products for the new millenia. In Euro2000 you can see and feel the fun that was had before the winning formulas were fully discovered.