Will Adama Traore be regretting Spain switch?
The Hispano-Malian winger has been one of the big disappointments of Euro 2020 so far  Spain may have reached the semi-finals of the European Championships, but wideman Adama Traore has been a peripheral figure to date. The Wolverhampton Wanderers speedster has featured for just 13 minutes so far this tournament, and has struggled to assert himself in this Spain side as theyve reached the final four. To make the point even more pertinently, Traores brief cameo to date came in the final stages of the 5-0 demolition of Slovakia at the Estadio Olimpico de la Cartuja, by which point La Roja were already five goals to the good and the game was comfortably wrapped up. Remarkably, however, Traore registered three completed dribbles in his 13-minute cameomore than any other player managed in the entirety of the match. While the winger caught the eye with his ability to beat a man, he was unable to fashion a goalscoring opportunityfor himself or his teammatesduring his brief showing. He hasnt been used since, sitting out the Last 16 victory over Croatia and the quarter-final triumph over Switzerland. Despite scoring 10 goals across back-to-back fixtures against Slovakia and Croatia, Spain are arguably fortunate to have reached the last four. They started the season slowly, and then had a series of dismal Swiss penalties to thank for advancing past Nati. For a player who has the potential to be one of the most eye-catching stars in the tournament due to his footwork, physicality, dribbling ability and pace, its bitterly disappointing that hes been used to sparingly this tournament. What makes things even more underwhelming is that it could have all been so different for Traore, who had appeared to be primed to switch to Mali as recently as late 2019. The winger was pictured holding up a Mali shirtan indication that he was converting to the Eaglesand may well have made his international debut for the West Africans in March 2020 had the coronavirus pandemic not cancelled this particular window of fixtures. By the time international football returned in late 2020, Traore had been approached by Spain again, a result of his excellent form for Wolves in the top flight. After pulling out of the squad in August 2020 after a positive Covid-19 diagnosis (it ultimately proved to be a false positive), he made his debut in October against Portugal. Having featured against Switzerland in a Nations League game last year, he is now cap-tied to Spain, andunder current Fifa rules at leastcannot convert to Mali.