Where are Europe's big boys?

Why the European heavyweights didn't make the trip to Canada

By John F. Molinaro, CBCSports.ca

Imagine a World Cup without Italy.

Or England. Or Germany. Or France.

Now, imagine a World Cup tournament without any of these four perennial European powerhouses, who have combined to win nine World Cups.

Seems unthinkable, doesn't it? Well, it's not.

Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Spain are the lone European representatives at this summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Casual soccer fans might be surprised to find out that Europe's traditional big boys, including Italy, the defending 2006 World Cup champions, won't be competing in Canada.

Portugal's Bruno Gama will be one of the top European stars to watch at the FIFA U-20 World Cup. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

The reason is that the majority of European nations have historically put more emphasis and poured more resources into their under-21 teams, as opposed to their under-19 squads that compete at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Traditionally, if Italy or England has spotted a talented teenaged prodigy in their ranks, they have immediately streamed him into the under-21 team, even if he was still young enough to play for the under-19 side.

This player development strategy speaks volumes about how much European nations value their under-21 teams - a fact underscored by the presence of Italy, the Netherlands and England at the UEFA U-21 European Championship earlier this month and their absence at this summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The under-19 team "is not a high priority for a lot of the national European soccer associations," commentator Dick Howard told CBCSports.ca.

Indeed, even though the 2006 European U-19 championship served as the qualifying tournament for the U-20 World Cup, England, Germany, France and Italy all fielded weakened teams and all of them failed to make it to the final round of the competition.

Europe's lack of interest in their under-19 teams is one of the reasons why South America has dominated the FIFA U-20 World Cup: Argentina and Brazil have won nine of the 15 tournaments since the competition was launched in 1977. Spain was the last European team to win the U-20 title in 1999.

"For a lot of the European countries, the under-19 teams are a low priority, which is completely different from South American nations like Argentina or Brazil, Nigeria in Africa, Japan in Asia and Mexico in North America. All of those countries make it a priority to maintain a strong under-19 program," Howard explained.

As a result, countries such as Spain and Portugal, who have underachieved at the senior level but between them have won the FIFA U-20 World Cup three times, are the dominant European countries at the under-19 level.

"Spain and Portugal see great value in their under-19 teams," explained Howard. "They see it as very important part of a player's development and training to become a professional. It's just a difference in philosophy."

Former Canadian national team goalkeeper Craig Forrest, who played professionally in England for 18 years, believes the European nations put less emphasis on their under-19 teams because they are afraid of burning out their players at a young age.

"It's a long season. Some of these young guys are playing for their clubs, playing 40 to 50 games a season," Forrest said.

"By putting these young kids in the under-21 team, they'll get the experience of training at the top level without playing a lot of games until they are a bit older and physically able to handle the pressure."

That being said, Forrest believes Europe's top soccer nations are missing the boat by not putting more resources into their under-19 programs.

"It's great development for the game. England and other countries are missing out by not taking it seriously," Forrest said.