UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh says Andres Iniesta “symbolised the tournament” after he won the Best Player of the 2012 European Championships for champions Spain.
The Spanish midfielder played a key role in his side’s triumph, which they sealed on Sunday with a 4-0 final victory over Italy. Shortly after the triumph, Iniesta was crowned with the Best Player award by the UEFA technical team.
“Pirlo was magnificent and obviously circumstances didn’t help him in the final,” Roxburgh said.
“Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernández and Iniesta were all superb. In the case of Xavi, he won the award last time, and he could easily have won the award again, but we felt that Iniesta deserved it.
“In many ways, he symbolised the tournament – the creative, incisive runner, with and without the ball. We felt that he epitomised a lot of what we saw.”