The Under 17 world cup has just been concluded and we saw Iheanacho bag the MVP award but truth is only Cesc Fabregas, Toni Kroos and Landon Donovan have won the award and went on to be top players as they grew. Again Nigeria has won the most Under - 17 world cups but hasn't got more than three players making it big after the Under -17 world cup. The most interesting scenario is that these players were not top players in any Under -17 world cup but they went on to become A -list players
I'm just going to put down the names of U-17 players who are currently stars in the game, that played (actually most of them sat on the bench during) the U - 17 starting 1997

EGYPT 1997:

Sebastian KEHL - Borrusia Dortmund

Roman WEINDEFELLER - Borrusia Dortmund

Iker CASILLAS - Real Madrid

XAVI Hernandez - Barcelona

Gabriel MILITO - Retired

RONALDINHO - Atletico Mineiro


NEW ZEALAND 1999


Pepe REINA - Napoli

Mikel ARTETA - Arsenal

Landon DONOVAN - LA Galaxy

Oguchi ONYEWU - QPR

ANDERSON - Manchester United


TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 2001


Andres INIESTA - Barcelona

Fernando TORRES - Chelsea

Javier MASCHERANO - Barcelona

Carlos TEVEZ - Juventus

Pablo ZABALETA - Manchester City


FINLAND 2003


Alex Song - Barcelona

John Obi Mikel - Chelsea

Miguel Veloso - Sporting Lisbon

Joao Moutinho - AS Monaco

David Silva - Manchester City

Cesc Fabregas - Barcelona

Ezequiel Garay - Benfica

Fernando Gago - Boca Juniors



PERU 2005




MARCELO - Real Madrid



KOREA 2007



Eden HAZARD - Chelsea

Christian BENTEKE - Aston Villa

Danny WELBECK - Manchester United

Victor MOSES - Liverpool (played for England with the number 10 jersey if you remember )

Mamadou SAKHO - Liverpool

Toni KROOS - Bayern Munich

David DE GEA - Manchester United

BOJAN - Ajax

RAFAEL - Manchester United

FABIO - QPR

TIAGO - Atletico Madrid

GIULANO - Internacional



NIGERIA 2009



Kenneth OMERUO - Chelsea

Ogenyi ONAZI - SS Lazio

Marc-Andre TER STEGEN - Borrusia Mochengadbach

Mario GOETZE - Bayern Munich

Stephan EL-SHARAWAAY - A C Milan

Iker MUNIAIN - Athletic Bilbao

ISCO - Real Madrid

Phillipe COUTINHO - Liverpool

NEYMAR - Barcelona



MEXICO 2011

Raheem STERLING -Liverpool

WALLACE - Inter Milan

MARQUINHOS - PSG

Lucas PIAZON - Malaga