Under-17 graduates enjoy World Cup honours

The qualifying round for the 2014/15 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, which will end with an expanded 16-team finals next May, begins on 19 September and the competition's benefits have been shown by the FIFA World Cup just ended, not least by the man that scored the winner for Germany in the decider.

In all 54 players that have taken part in U17 final tournaments since the first in Denmark 12 years ago were in Brazil, with 12 of the 13 UEFA representatives having had experience of UEFA's junior tournament, in which the likes of 2014 Best Young Player Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Eden Hazard and Stefan de Vrij first shone. Mario Götze, indeed, won the tournament in 2009 five years before his Rio de Janiero heroics on Sunday.

In the predecessor U16 event, 28 eventual 2014 World Cup players first took part, including Fernando Torres, Andrés Ineista and Wesley Sneijder in 2001, Robin van Persie, Iker Casillas, Steven Gerrard and, in 1993 in Turkey, future major tournament winners Gianluigi Buffon and Georgios Karagounis.

UEFA.com presents the U17 roll of honour: where the player name has a link, it leads to a piece with or about the player from the final tournament in question.

2002
Switzerland (winners): Tranquillo Barnetta, Philippe Senderos, Reto Ziegler
England: Wayne Rooney
France: Carl Medjani (now Algeria)
Germany: Lukas Podolski
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo
Spain: David Silva

Karim Benzema 2004©UEFA.com

2003
Portugal (winners): Vieirinha, João Moutinho, Miguel Veloso
England: James Milner
Spain: David Silva (2nd U17 finals)

2004
France (winners): Karim Benzema
Portugal: Rui Patrício
Spain: Cesc Fàbregas, Gerard Piqué

2005
Croatia: Milan Badelj, Dejan Lovren
Netherlands: Tim Krul
Switzerland: Yann Sommer, Ivan Rakitić (now Croatia)

Eden Hazard 2007©Sportsfile

2006
Belgium: Toby Alderweireld, Axel Witsel
Luxembourg: Miralem Pjanić (now Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Germany: Toni Kroos, Ron-Robert Zieler
Spain: Cesar Azpilicueta

2007
Spain (winners): David de Gea
Belgium: Eden Hazard
England: Daniel Welbeck, Victor Moses (now Nigeria)
France: Mamadou Sakho
Germany: Toni Kroos (2nd U17 finals)
Netherlands: Daley Blind, Leroy Fer, Georginio Wijnaldum

Mario Götze 2009©Sportsfile

2008
Netherlands: Jordy Clasie
Switzerland: Michael Lang, Admir Mehmedi, Xherdan Shaqiri

2009
Germany (winners): Mario Götze, Shkodran Mustafi
Switzerland (FIFA U-17 World Cup winners): Haris Seferovic, Granit Xhaka
England: Jack Wilshere
Italy: Mattia Perin
Netherlands: Stefan de Vrij, Jöel Veltman
Spain: Koke

Mempis Depay 2011©Marko Djurić

2010
England (winners): Ross Barkley
France: Lucas Digne, Paul Pogba
Greece: Stefanos Kapino

2011
Netherlands (winners): Memphis Depay, Terence Kongolo
England: Raheem Sterling

WATCH THE BEST OF THE 2014 U17 FINALS, WON BY ENGLAND

2014/15 qualifying round
Group 1 (22-27 September): Scotland, Republic of Ireland*, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar

Group 2 (26-31 October): Poland, Georgia*, Estonia, Liechtenstein

Group 3 (15-20 October): Iceland, Italy, Moldova*, Armenia

Group 4 (25-30 October): England, France, Cyprus*, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Group 5 (25-30 September): Ukraine, Sweden, Greece, Latvia*

Group 6 (19-24 September): Turkey, Portugal, Slovenia*, Northern Ireland

Group 7 (21-26 October): Croatia, Hungary*, Kazakhstan, Israel

Group 8 (9-14 October): Serbia, Netherlands, Malta*, Finland

Group 9 (8-13 October): Austria, Norway, San Marino, Albania*

Group 10 (23-28 October): Belgium*, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group 11 (24-29 October): Slovakia*, Spain, Luxembourg, Lithuania

Group 12 (25-30 September): Czech Republic, Denmark, Romania, Andorra*

Group 13 (19-24 October): Russia, Belarus*, Wales, Montenegro

*Hosts

Bye to elite round: Germany

Bye to finals: Bulgaria (hosts)