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I had a discussion about this the other day with a mate and ended up searching for some stuff. Anyway, I run into squad lists of 2003 U17 World Cup. These players are about 23 to 25 right now and should be near the peak of their careers. Anyway, there were couple who turned into top players. Namely Cesc Fabregas, David Villa and Jon Obi Mikael. Then there were couple who are having decent careers like Miguel Veloso, Joao Moutinho, Fernando Gago, Alex Song and Jonathan Spector. But that's pretty much it! And these were the supposed cream of the crop in the world at the age of 17!!! And even back then I was familiar with most of those names as the competition was in Finland I went to fair few games.

The point I'm trying to make, I think, is that how hard it's really to tell which players will make it at the tender age of 17. Sure there are few stand outs but rest of them are very hard to separate from each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_FIFA_ ... hip_squads

Spain had a midfielder called "Sisi" lol

This lad was meant to be Pele, Gazza, Maradona and Best wrapped up in one..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Pike

A lot of those guys are playing professional football in their countries (or elsewhere) or have even been getting international football.

There aren't many Mexicans (for example) playing in the prem or household names in Spain, so one year's crop is always going to appear sparse. If you look at Portugal and Spain you see lots of names you'll have seen at some point (but possibly forgotten about like David Silva), if you look at Yemen, Sierra Leone or Costa Rica then there's a good chance you mightn't know any, regardless of whether they were good by their countries standards.

So Villa did the African trick and convinced everyone he was under 17 when he was actually already about 23?

Danny Cadamarteri (sp) springs to mind. He scored a couple for Everton in the Merseyside Derby as a Teenager and was being touted as the next big thing. He had a bit of a disciplinary problem and, last I heard, was playing for Grays Athletic.

Remember Sonny Pike from Fantasy Football League. Frank Skinner was on about him being picked first in the Playground and said "you know the fat kid with the big nose who always gets picked last? Well, to get his own back on people like you, he'll become a Referee."

At 17 the players who have physically developed will dominate. I think u19s will give a better guide as to who is up for it. If I was scouting young players I think the Olympics is the best guide for young players. That's a quality tournament with u23's.

Fidel Castro wrote:So Villa did the African trick and convinced everyone he was under 17 when he was actually already about 23?

Point. He probably meant Silva.

Alioune DVToure wrote:

Fidel Castro wrote:So Villa did the African trick and convinced everyone he was under 17 when he was actually already about 23?

Point. He probably meant Silva.

yeah, obviously meant Silva.

This is very true. I was having a similar discussion with a mate of mine the other day as well actually. So much of skill is about opportunity, system, and teamate chemistry. So many players (especially at this young age but even older) are around the same ability or skill set and it just comes down to run of games between being a consistant international or a player like jo.

Having watched City's young players for many years, a lot of the best ones at many age groups seemed to be overlooked at international level, yet the players in front of them didn't seem to be especially good, so I'm not sure whether selection is based on the best talent or just down to suiting the clubs needs regarding releasing players (or of course being a rag).

In contrast, the England youth team last year contained a whole bunch of City players (most of whom have got as much chance of playing for the full England team as I have), probably because other teams were using their better young players & not releasing them for England duty. They were so obviously lacking though, it seemed hard to believe that there aren't better players of that age available even at Rochdale or Bury. If they're the best we're fucked.

For me its the one's who get lucky are the ones who will make it.
I should imagine there is the odd one like Goofy etc... that stand out from the rest but for the majority of average players I think its more down to how they use thier luck.

Rag_hater wrote:For me its the one's who get lucky are the ones who will make it.
I should imagine there is the odd one like Goofy etc... that stand out from the rest but for the majority of average players I think its more down to how they use thier luck.

One question how do you use “luck” ?