SLOVENIA WELCOMES ROONEY'S AND FABREGAS' SUCCESSORS

I am quite sure the round-ball enthusiasts know pretty much all about Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas, Nuri Sahin, Toni Kroos, Bojan Krkić. And Connor Wickham and Kyle Ebecilio even. Some of them are already established superstars, some of them are still the diamonds in the rough. But all of above mentioned have something more in common. They were all once picked as the best players in UEFA Euro U17.

This year's tournament of the future football stars is hosted by Slovenia (4th - 16th May). My lovely country, squeezed between Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and the Adriatic sea, decorated with various types of forests, picturesque mountains (although I'm not much of a mountaineer), a couple of lovely lakes, good food and even better booze, is worth a visit. Yes, like in every other country the self-centered politicians spoil the could-be paradise, but let me ignore them. As I often do. The country is still beautiful. As is football. The most beautiful game in the world.

The tournament, which will surely uncover some of the future stars, will be played in four towns. Lendava and Maribor in the eastern part of the country will host the matches of the Group B, which consists of Slovenia, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands, champions of Europe in 2011. In central part of Slovenia, in Domžale and Ljubljana, there will be matches of Group A (France, Iceland, Georgia, Germany). The semifinals and final will be played in Stožice (part of Ljubljana) at the newest and biggest Slovenian stadium with a capacity of near 16,000.

The experts say the successors of Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten... will be the team to beat. "I think they are the main favourites of the tournament. Even other experts that follow these kind of championships say, that the Netherlands possess the most talent, have the best quality of play etc.," said former Slovenian international Marko Simeunović, also one of the two ambassadors of the UEFA under 17 championship. The other is a former Slovenia striker Sašo Udović.

The Dutch coach Albert Stuivenberg hasn't been surprised by sticking them the favourites' role. "I think the media will say 'the Netherlands are the favourites in that group'. But we have a whole new group; every year we have a new team so it's always a very exciting period for the players, because they experience for the first time what playing at a European Championship means. It's a great challenge for us as staff to prepare well, and hopefully it will be enough," he told UEFA.com.

Their first opponent at the coming Euro will be the hosts, who count on a massive support in Maribor. The Ljudski vrt stadium (capacity cca. 12,000) has a reputation of being the 'hottest' venue in Slovenian football, which could not be bad at all for the ambitious Slovenians, who'd like to progress at least to the semifinals.

"It's just what I wanted. The first game of the tournament versus the strongest team out there. In these kind of situtations you have the biggest chance for the upset. They don't know us, we know something about them. I've seen them play, they are a very good side, very organized, but I believe we can make a good result there," were the first words of the Slovenian coach Miloš Kostić after the draw. Which took place on April 4th in one of Ljubljana hotels.

Although Kostić refused to name the players for which he believes can succeed in the world of football, he's convinced that this Euro will surely offer a lot of joy. "You'll see some of the future stars. That's for sure. I've been to quite a few matches of the teams, which qualified for the final stage. And all of them have some outstanding players. Yes, there are many factors influencing your path to the football greatness, but there are already some footballers, resembling some of the world's greatest with some moves. It will be a lot of joy watching them," concluded Kostić.

* Schedule (hours in CET): * Group A: Friday, May 4th: 1830 Ljubljana: Georgia - Germany, 2030 Domžale: France - Iceland, Monday, May 7th: 1730 Domžale: France - Georgia, 1830 Ljubljana: Iceland - Germany, Thursday, may 10th: 1930 Ljubljana: Germany - France, 1930 Domžale: Iceland - Georgia.

* Group B: Friday, May 4th: 1400 Lendava: Poland - Belgium, 2015 Maribor: Slovenia - Netherlands, Monday, May 7th: 1700 Maribor: Netherlands - Belgium, 2015 Lendava: Slovenia - Poland, Thursday, may 10th: 1730 Lendava: Netherlands - Poland, 1730 Maribor: Belgium - Slovenia.

Sunday, May 13th: 1730/2030 Ljubljana: semifinals

Wednesday, May 16th: 18.00 Ljubljana: final

POGLED NA SP U20 V KOLUMBIJI - NEKATERA IMENA SI VELJA ZAPOMNITI

Yeah, right … Mah, nič ne bom dolgovezil. Mene to zanima, vas verjetno ne, toda to me ni ustavilo, da ne bi par besed vrgel na splet. Tema je, da, nogomet. Nič presenetljivega, mar ne?

Večini se verjetno gladko jebe za mladinske turnirje, no, meni pa so iz leta v leto bolj všeč. Ne vem, določen čar je v tem, da spremljaš razvoj določenih nogometašev (oh, le koliko Ronaldov, Messijev, Maradon in drugih se je „izgubilo“). No, whatever, kot bi rekle tinejdžerke v ameriških sitcomih ...

Le malokdo, ki ni službeno s tem povezan, ve, da so letos poleti številna mladinska prvenstva (prihodnje leto imamo v Sloveniji EP u17 btw), za nami je že, denimo, SP do 17 let v Mehiki. Tam so se na domačem terenu proslavili Mehičani na čelu s krilcem Pachuce Juliom Gomezom, ki so za seboj pustili Urugvaj, Nemčijo, Brazilijo ...

Svetovni javnosti pa so se lahko predstavili še nekateri obetavni mladci, denimo prvi strelec turnirja Souleymane Coulibaly s Slonokoščene obale (član Tottenhama), Nemca Samed Yesil in Okan Aydin (oba Bayer Leverkusen, oba napadalca), Brazilci Wallace (obetavni levi bočni branilec Fluminenseja), Sao Paulov Ademilson (kot napadalca ga krasi natančen strel) in njegov kreativni klubski soigralec Lucas Piazon (za katerega se bodejo v Evropi, bržčas bo šel k Chelseaju) in mnogi drugi. Bomo še kaj slišali o njih, gotovo ...

Malce „resnejši“ nogomet so igrali 19-letniki na EP v Romuniji, kjer so ne preveč presenetljivo slavili Španci z Realovim Alvarom Morato (top scorer) pred Čehi, še bolj zanimiv s stališča „narejenih igralcev“ je bil evropski turnir do 21 let, kjer so spet in pričakovano slavili Španci, ki se v tej starostni kategoriji lahko pohvalijo s prvim strelcem turnirja Adrianom Lopezom, pa Bojanom Krkićem, Thiagom Alcantaro, Davidom De Geo, Ikerjem Muniainom in drugimi, ki jih ni treba posebej predstavljati.

Trenutno pa poteka SP do 20 let. Nogometaši so zbrani v Kolumbiji. Skupaj je nastopalo 24 reprezentanc, znani pa so že pari osmine finala (naši sosedi Avstrijci in Hrvati so končali v predtekmovanju, nas, Madžarov in Italijanov ni bilo tam).

Med najboljšimi 16 se bodo torej pomerili (ob tem si drznem malo dannyjevstva) :

Portugalska – Gvatemala
(napovedujem preboj Portugalcev, Gvatemala je premagala le razštelane Hrvate, pa čeprav so imeli v svojih vrstah opevane Mateja Delača, Andreja Kramarića ...)

Argentina – Egipt
(Egipčani niso izgubili tekme, remizirali so z Brazilci, a vendar dajem prednost Argentini, rekorderki po številu naslovov v tej kategoriji; ta ni navdušila, a se na krilih Juana Iturbeja – novi član Porta je zmožen tudi kakšne messijevske poteze -, Carlosa Luqueja, Rominega Erika Lamele in drugih dviga iz tekme v tekmo)

Kamerun – Mehika
(tu dajem prednost Mehičanom, ki znajo odigrati na rezultat, v Tauficu Gurachu pa imajo živahnega strelca, ki pa ima lahko tudi zelo slab dan)

Kolumbija – Kostarika
(v tem paru bi bilo vse razen napredovanja Kolumbije presenečenje; ne le da ima v svoji vrsti že uveljavljenega Portovega Jamesa Rodrigueza, pa še enega napadalca Luisa Muriela iz Lecceja, temveč tudi odkritje, vezista Juana Davida Cabezasa iz Deprotiva Cali; zanesljivo je dobila vse tekme, tako da Kostariki niti Joel Campbell, želja Arsenala, Seville, Fiorentine, ne more pomagati)

Nigerija – Anglija
(v tem paru gre po moje naprej Nigerija, saj je v predtekmovanju vse tekmece po vrsti zmlela, njihov najboljši strelec je Tobi Kayode; Angleži v svoji vrsti nimajo posebej izstopajočega igralca, bržčas pa imajo dobrega vratarja za prihodnost v Jacku Butlandu iz Birmingham Cityja)

Španija – Južna Koreja
(imena, kot so Sergio Canales po novem iz Valencie, Alvaro Vazquez iz Espanyola, Rodrigo Moreno iz Benfice, Oriol Romeu iz Chelseaja, Koke iz madridskega Atletica in drugi, ter vse boljše predstave Špancem zagotavljajo napredovanje, čeprav sta se ji Kostarika in Ekvador kar dobro upirala in pokazala tudi nekatere vrzeli v zadnji vrsti)

Brazilija – Saudska Arabija
(za mnoge je četrtfinalist že znan, ampak Saudijci so pokazali dober nogomet, čeprav jih zdaj čaka po Nigeriji, proti kateri so izgubili, prvi resen tekmec; ta ima na voljo izjemno razpoloženega vezista Coutinha iz Interja, branilca Danila iz Porta, napadalca Henriqueja iz Sao Paula, zelo zaželenega vezista Casemira prav tako iz Sao Paula, kar je bržčas dovolj, da lahko Južnoameričani računajo na najboljšo osmerico)

Francija - Ekvador
(težka odločitev, ampak naj bo Francija, ki prav tako stopnjuje formo, ima razpoloženega napadalca Lyona Alexandra Lacazetta, pa vezista Antoina Griezmanna, ki si iz Sociedada želi k madridskem Atleticu, in že znanega Gaela Kakuto iz Chelseaja; Ekvador na drugi strani nima igralca s takim potencialom, čeprav sta dva že člana tujih klubov – Renato Ibarra Vitesseja, Juan Cazares argentinskega River Plata, veliko obeta tudi vratar John Jaramillo).

Tekme osmine finala bodo 9. in 10. avgusta, Eurosport in Eurosport 2 prenašata zgodnje tekme, torej tiste, ki se začnejo opolnoči …