The FA Youth Cup final takes place on Tuesday night, with Arsenal welcoming West Ham to the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners’ under-18s side are managed by club legend Jack Wilshere, while the Hammers are led by Kevin Keen. A hotly contested final is expected in front of a sizable crowd in north London between two sides who know each other well.
West Ham beat Arsenal 2-0 two weeks ago to clinch the Under-18 Premier League South Division title. Arsenal have not won the competition since Wilshere himself played in the team back in 2008/09.
The fixture is a good place to spot up-and-coming stars and it therefore has a history packed full of household names. Here Mirror Football takes a look at some of the best from over the years.
David Beckham
Beckham was a part of the famous Class of 92, a bumper year at the Manchester United academy, which also included the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.
Beckham wore the No6 shirt back then, not the No7 he later made famous. He scored in the first leg of United’s win over Crystal Palace in the 1991/92 FA Youth Cup final. United’s side, which also contained Giggs, Robbie Savage and Gary Neville, then beat Crystal Palace 3-2 at Old Trafford to complete a 6-3 aggregate victory.
Beckham, Gary Neville and Scholes also played in the 1992/93 final, which United lost 4-1 on aggregate to Leeds.
Michael Owen
Owen was just 16 years old in May 1996 when Liverpool played West Ham in the final. His youth didn’t matter: he had scored two hat-tricks in the competition, including one against Manchester United, and came on as a substitute in the second leg at Anfield.
A Liverpool side which featured Jamie Carragher had won the first leg 2-0 at Upton Park and Owen helped the club win their first ever Youth Cup, scoring the first goal in a 2-1 win in the second leg, which saw Frank Lampard on the scoresheet for the Hammers.
Wayne Rooney
Rooney was turning heads in the FA Youth Cup in 2001/02. The Everton upstart had scored eight goals during the Toffees’ run to the final, where they faced Aston Villa.
Unfortunately for Everton, the team were over reliant on Rooney’s star quality and lost the first leg of the final 4-1 at Goodison Park. Rooney scored the Everton goal, but they could not turn things around, losing 4-2 on aggregate to a Villa side containing Steven Davis, Liam Ridgewell and Peter Whittingham, after a 1-0 win in the second leg.
Jack Wilshere
Arsenal’s current under-18s coach was a bonafide star in his own right during his progression through the club’s academy. He will be aiming to recreate the achievement of his playing days on Tuesday night.
Wilshere was one of the star’s of Arsenal’s win over Liverpool in 2008/09, scoring from the penalty spot in the first leg at the Emirates as Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Sanchez Watt also netted in a 4-1 win. They won the second leg at Anfield 2-1 to record a comfortable 6-2 victory on aggregate against a Liverpool team with Tom Ince, Andre Wisdom and Daniel Ayala in it.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Do you have any memories of watching stars in the FA Youth Cup? Comment below.
Tammy Abraham
Abraham is now forging a path at Roma, but he was made in the Chelsea academy, where he was one of the club’s star strikers. His talent was there for all to see in the 2014/15 FA Youth Cup final as the Blues steamrollered Manchester City 5-2 on aggregate.
Abraham scored twice within 20 minutes in the first leg, with Dominic Solanke grabbing a third in a 3-1 win. He got on the scoresheet in the second leg, too, with a side containing Fikayo Tomori proving too much for City, whose goal came from Kelechi Iheanacho.
Chelsea were back the following year, too, with Abraham scoring once again as they beat City 4-2 on aggregate. Mason Mount also scored in the 2015/16 final as Chelsea’s youth set-up reigned supreme.
Phil Foden
The 2016/17 FA Youth Cup season saw the third Chelsea vs Man City final in successive years. City lost once again, as the likes of Trevoh Chalobah and Callum Hudson-Odoi shone for Chelsea, but there were encouraging signs for City.
Foden scored in the first leg, a 1-1 draw, and was playing alongside Jadon Sancho on the wings for City. Both players – plus many of their Chelsea opponents – formed the basis of England’s victorious squad which won the Under-17 World Cup in October 2017.
Alejandro Garnacho
You don’t have to rewind far to reminisce about Garnacho’s star quality, with the winger now in Erik ten Hag’s squad. The young winger helped United win the FA Youth Cup last year, beating Nottingham Forest 3-1.
Garnacho had already been crowned as United’s under-18 Player of the Year when he scored the crucial penalty to secure the club’s 11th trophy in the competition. He added another goal late on to cap things off nicely.
The victory saw United win the trophy for the first time since 2010/11 when a side containing Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard beat Harry Maguire's Sheffield United 6-3 on aggregate.
