Switzerland: U-17 World Cup Winners and Team of the Future. (Distant Future.)

November 16th, 2009 | by: chris | Comments(9)

Be honest, you’d forgotten entirely about the Under 17 World Cup – and that’s if you were aware of its running in the first place. We’ll also accept admissions from those who confused it with the Under-20 World Cup (Lite) in Egypt won late last month by Ghana.

But it happened, and Switzerland – yes, Switzerland – took home the trophy, their first of any kind in FIFA territory, from Lagos against what had to be the heavily favored and exceedingly overaged hometown Nigerians.

What transpired, if the highlights are any indication, was a lot of dry spells in between a few decent chances for each side and a little karma for Nigeria’s dabbling with overaged players.

Now let’s not feign interest: Switzerland winning the trophy is nice, but we’re interested in the next generation. The Golden Ball is far more important a trophy than the trinket they hand out for merely winning the thing. Why? That’s easy. The last three winners of the adidas Golden Ball for the U17 World Cup:

2007: Toni Kroos (Germany)
2005: Anderson (Brazil)
2003: Cesc (Spain)

Not a bad batch of a talent right there. One, Cesc, has matched the talent and then some, while Anderson hasn’t quite, but is still very young and is still, despite the great wrath of Whiskey Face, playing out of position in Manchester. The latest, Tony Kroos, is still, at 19, a tried and true prodigy, if the immediate superstar expectations were a bit overzealous.

Florent Sinama-Pongolle pulls up as the 2001 winner, and he’s nothing to shake a stick at either. Names like Bojan, Nuri Sahin, Giovani Dos Santos and David Silva dot the list of Silver and Bronze Ball winners in that same three-tournament period. They are all quite good and all still quite young as well.

In short it’s all about the who, not the what. Which is why this year’s list is as important as anything which happened during the games (except for the participants, mind you).

adidas Golden Ball: Sani Emmanuel (Nigeria)
The diminutive Nigerian forward won 30.2 per cent of the votes for best player cast by the tournament’s accredited media representatives. Although he started most matches on the bench, his impact on the game and memorable goals were enough to convince the press that he was a deserving winner of the adidas Golden Ball.

adidas Silver Ball: Nassim Ben Khalifa (Switzerland)
The Swiss admitted that he’s been a Ronaldo fan for years, and from what we have seen, he has emulated him to perfection. With his blistering pace, exquisite technique and composure in the box, the Swiss No10 netted four times and provided three assists on the way to the title. With such a complete performance, it comes as little surprise that he won an impressive 22.7 per cent of the votes.

adidas Bronze Ball: Ramon Azeez (Nigeria)
Nigeria’s flying midfielder grabbed the media’s attention with his ability to provide balance in a clearly attack-minded team. He played in every game and even scored against Korea Republic. With 17.8 per cent of the votes, Azeez wins the adidas Bronze Ball, which may be of some consolation after defeat in the final.

adidas Golden Glove: Benjamin Siegrist (Switzerland)
The FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) awarded Swiss goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist the adidas Golden Glove for best goalkeeper in the tournament. The baby-faced giant, currently at Aston Villa in England, was one of the pillars of his team’s success, conceding just seven goals in as many games. He goes home with deserved recognition of his contribution to Switzerland’s historic victory.

FIFA Fair Play Award: Nigeria
Although just a step away from being crowned champions, Nigeria did win the FIFA Fair Play Award. Playing at home, John Obuh’s boys acquitted themselves magnificently, showing tremendous sportsmanship and thrilling the home fans with their high-quality football.

* – We’d like to award the Irony Award to FIFA for handing the Fair Play Award to Nigeria roughly two months after they had over a dozen players booted from competitions for age cheating. Short memory, that Sepp.

So after you’re done congratulating Switzerland and marking them down as a 2018 dark horse, make sure you remember the names…

…just promise you won’t use the soundtrack in a YouTube compilation.