Euro 2012 - Young stars to watch out for (part 2)

The first part primarily focused on attackers and midfielders, which is not fair, since most of the time people tend to focus more on these positions instead of defending roles. In football, you need to have the right balance between attack and defence. What's the point in scoring if you can't defend your lead? So, here is a list of young defenders (and goalies) which will probably feature in the upcoming Euro Championship.

Marc-André ter Stegen - Ok, so this guy probably will not feature a lot in the Euro, with Manuel Neuer being selected to guard the German posts, but his ability has been widely appreciated in the German Bundesliga, where this goalie helped his side win matches on several occasions. He stated that former-goalkeeper Oliver Kahn is his hero, and in fact, he has been frequently compared to Kahn.

Yaroslav Rakitskiy - One of many upcoming Ukrainian young talents, this centre-back has also aroused interest from the Blaugrana, probably because of the emergency in defence which Barcelona had to face this season, where Mascherano had to be deployed as a centre-back. 

Kyriakos Papadopoulos - This 20-year-old Greek made a dream debut against Malta, where he scored in his first match with the Greek shirt. After an excellent year in 2011 with Schalke 04, he was called up to the national team, and since then has made 7 appearances.

Jordi Alba - Everyone knows the strength and depth of the current Spanish squad, and so it is very difficult for current youngsters to even earn their first cap, let alone cement their place in the first-team line-up! This 23-year-old is hotly linked with a move to Barcelona, where some reports even declare that latter made an offer for him.

Šime Vrsaljko - This 20-year-old is considered as one of the most talented Croatian footballers, with some rating him to have better potential than Luka Modrić, even though Vrsaljko plays as a right-back. Despite not getting much playing time with the Croatian team, he still has been called up to serve as back-up for any possible injuries or suspensions.