UEFA voted Xavi Hernandez as the player of the tournament and selected nine of his teammates in the 23-member Euro 2008 team.

There was no place in the squad for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star who scored 43 goals for Manchester United last season and is a leading candidate for FIFA player of the year, after he failed to reproduce his best form.

Andy Roxburgh, the former Scotland coach who is head of UEFA's Technical Committee, said that Spain's superior technical ability at the championship had won it the title.

"We have chosen Xavi because he epitomizes the Spanish style of play. He was extremely influential in the whole possession, passing and penetrating kind of game that Spain played," Roxburgh said yesterday.

Runner-up Germany, which made its sixth Euro final but has not won an international title since the 1996 European Championship, had three players in the squad?-- defender Philipp Lahm, captain Michael Ballack and attacking midfielder Lukas Podolski, who scored three goals.

Russia had four players in the squad, including strikers Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin, who missed the first two games because of suspension.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 1, 2008)