EURO Queens: The Record-Breakers Who Defined the Women’s Game

Let's look at the EUROS fact file history of the most and the tops in each category. Hopefully, you can see the key pattern throughout the piece.

Let's start off with the most important: the top goal scorers. While Beth Mead holds it for the Euros 2022, this is just one European Championship, not making her the top goal scorer of all time.

This is held by two Germans, Inja Grings and Birgit Prinz, both of whom have 10 goals. Grings scored her respectfully in the EUROS 2005 and 2009 and was one of Germany’s prolific strikers. She won the Golden Boot twice and led Germany to multiple titles.

Silke Rottenberg of Germany has the cleanest sheets ever for a goalkeeper. While most only see the strikers, the keepers are as crucial; they dictate the game as much as the strikers do. She has seven clean sheets from the 1997, 2001, and 2005 European tournaments. She has been described as a legend between the posts and crucial in Germany's golden run. Other players high on the clean sheets are Hedvig Lindahl of Sweden and another German, Almuth Schult.

The country with the most wins, and it is no surprise, is Germany. They have 26 wins as of 2022 under their belts. Their main years of domination were from the 1980s to the 2010s, when they won consistently across eras. Though their Euro form has not been up to their title-winning standard, after a squad regeneration and a bronze Olympic medal, they are top competitors for this summer's competitions.

The German national team have made 13 tournaments in the Euros. They have won eight titles- 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013. So many Euros should change their name to Germanos after winning more than half of the tournaments held since 1984, except they have not won the last two Euros, losing to England at Wembley 2–1 in 2022.

Birgit Prinz, the all-time goalscorer, also made the most appearances in the tournament, 23 over 5 Euros, between 1995 and 2007.

The only non-German on our list is the player with the most assists, which goes to the Belgian player Tine De Caigny, who has 23 assists in total.

Finally, four hosts have won it as the home country: Germany in 2001 after defeating Sweden 1-0 in extra time. Norway in 1987 beat co-hosts Sweden in the final in Oslo. The home nation and Sarin Wiegman have won the last two Euros. In 2017, the Netherlands won their first title as hosts, beating Denmark 4-2 in the final. Ladette England holds the record for the highest turnout at a Women's Euros, totalling 87,192.