Future stars

So I was watching the England under 21 game this afternoon from Bristol City's ground and I was reminded I saw England under 17s play Spain there a few years ago. 2001 to be precise.

It set me wondering if I'd seen future World Cup winners in Spain's team, so I tried to find the team lists for the game.

One Wayne Rooney played for England. Spain only had Iniesta and Torres and the following year Silva, who isn't a starter for Spain now.

It's funny, we hear all this stuff about Spain developing all these players and having a natural progression to the first team and while they are plainly producing far better players than England, their future "stars" are no more likley to actually become stars than England's future stars.