1 The Busby Babes
Matt Busby had a vision: to turn Manchester United into Europe’s finest club. English champions in 1956 and 1957, by 1958 the team was ready to take on the best that Europe had to offer. As revolutionary as the manager’s dream was his team’s youth. Captain Roger Byrne was the oldest at 28, while 25-year-old Tommy Taylor scored goals for breakfast, but their heartbeat, Duncan Edwards, pictured right, was just 21, although he had already won no less than 18 England caps. The Babes never reached adolescence after the disaster on a Munich airfield on February 6, 1958, the day after they had reached the semi-finals of the fledgling European Cup. Byrne, Taylor, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Billy Whelan and Eddie Colman were killed instantly in the disaster. Club secretary Walter Crickmer also died, along with the first-team trainer, Tom Curry, and coach Bert Whalley. Edwards and Johnny Berry were left badly injured and fighting for their lives. Edwards later died. Busby suffered extensive injuries and was the only club official to survive the crash. They could have been more than contenders

2 China’s divers
In 1991, the Chinese diving team won a total of four golds, two silvers and a bronze at the swimming world championships in Australia. The two girls and four boys on the team had an average age of just 14.6 years. The undoubted star of the show in Perth was 12-year-old Fu Mingxia, who had been shipped from her native Hubei province to an intensive training school in Beijing. She was allowed to see her parents once a year and was forced to train for nine hours every day. Somewhat shocked at this news, the swimming authorities decided to raise the age limit for subsequent adult competitions to 14. In 2002, by then an economics student, Fu married Antony Leung, 50, financial secretary of Hong Kong

3 Portugal’s Golden Generation
When Portugal — international also-rans since Eusebio — won the world under-21 championship in 1991, a bright Iberian dawn beckoned. If their collective potential remained unfulfilled, culminating in defeat to Greece in the final of Euro 2004, individually Rui Costa, Fernando Couto, Joao Pinto and Luis Figo thrilled both Europe and their bank managers. Now it’s time for an overhaul. Enter Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco, Ricardo Pereira, Ricardo Carvalho, Ricardo Quaresma and Nuno Gomes. Their sobriquet? The Platinum Generation

4 Wenger’s boy wonders
Everton fancied their Carling Cup chances at Highbury on Tuesday. Especially when they named a full-strength team and Arsène Wenger picked Edu, Jermaine Pennant, Robin van Persie and some kids. The men took eight minutes to take the lead against the boys. It was almost 8pm and the kids should have been in bed. Then, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, 18, with Sebastian Larsson, fired a shot past Richard Wright before Arturo Lupoli, 17, scored twice to take the kids to the quarter-finals. Johan Djourou, Daniel Karbassiyoon et al will soon be household names. Be frightened. Be very frightened

5 The Baby Blacks
In 1986, several All Black players showed they were not ashamed to take the apartheid rand and toured South Africa as part of the not-so-laughing Cavaliers. Their decision saw them banned from the New Zealand team, albeit for just two Tests. As a result, the so-called Baby Blacks (most of the youth team, captained by Cavaliers refusenik David Kirk and including Sean Fitzpatrick, right) briefly became the All Blacks in Tests against France and Australia. France were beaten 18-9, and then the Babies were squeezed out 12-13 by bitter rivals the Wallabies. Moral victory, though, moral victory

6 Ma’s Family Army
World athletics raised its eyebrows when three young Chinese peasant girls took gold in the 1500m, 3,000m and 10,000m at the 1993 world championships. The world suspected doping; their former soldier trainer, Ma Junren, ascribed their success to turtle blood and caterpillar fungus. There were tears ahead. Ma admitted beating the girls, including 10,000m winner Wang Junxia, left, and his athletes were dropped after failing blood tests

7 The Quality Street Gang
Once an ageing Celtic had been out-thought by Feyenoord in the European Cup final of 1970, manager Jock Stein decided to expand his scouting network and recruited a generation who matured from boys to men together and maintained Celtic’s hegemony over Scottish football for another decade. Alas, for every Danny McGrain, the first of the gang to make the first team and who remained loyal, there were others who served the cause less well. Kenny Dalglish, above, Lou Macari and David Hay would head south, while others never fulfilled their potential

8 Eastern Bloc gymnasts
When 4ft 11in Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, 17, above, charmed the world at the 1972 Olympics to win three golds, female gymnastics became the girls’ sport it remains today. Korbut had been in training for a decade. Four years later at Montreal, Nellie Kim, 18, who had been training for 30 hours a week at the age of nine, followed, only to be eclipsed by the Romanian Nadia Comaneci, 14, with her perfect 10s

9 Hornchurch’s urchins
Yesterday, Hornchurch travelled to Boston United. As with most Conference South teams, their players were unfamiliar. However, Hornchurch’s were unfamiliar to their own followers. Last week, the “Non-League Chelsea”, whose lavish spending saw them top of their league, learnt that their sponsors, Carthium, had gone bust and the cheques had been stopped. All senior players and management were sacked, leaving the under-19s, above, and some children off the streets of Hornchurch to face the might of full-time professionals

10 Fergie’s fledglings
These days, the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, with Alex Ferguson, are old buzzards clinging to former glories, while David Beckham and Nicky Butt have flown the coop. Yet Manchester United’s youth team of the early 1990s was one that dominated English football for a decade. “You’ll never win anything with kids,” warned Alan Hansen after United’s 3-1 loss at Aston Villa on the opening day of season 1995-96. But these were no ordinary kids . . .