By James Pacheco

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From Sunday onwards you’ll be able to watch the ‘who’s who’ of football over in the Club World Championship, staged in the USA. But whereas we’re unlikely to learn much about the likes of
Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe at this stage of their careers that we didn’t already know, the same can’t be said of the players who will feature at the UEFA European Under-19 Championships over the next two weeks.

These are the stars of tomorrow, the players who will be lighting up the Premier League, Champions League, Euros and World Cup over the next few years.

So, of course, Agent1 wants to take a look at the next generation of superstars firsthand and has made the trip from Norway to Romania, the tournament’s hosts, to monitor tomorrow’s
top talent and see who will end up winning the whole thing.

It’s England v Norway in Group B at 15:00 on Saturday June 14. Here’s some background to it all.

This isn’t England’s first rodeo

Success at senior level in major competitions has famously eluded England since winning the World Cup in 1966. But they have a surprisingly good record at this tournament despite not enjoying the same reputation for excelling at youth level that other countries like Portugal and France do.

They’ve won it 11 times before (making the final a further five times) the last of their wins being in 2022; only Spain with 12 wins, have won it more times.

Germany and Netherlands wait in the wings

It may seem a bit odd to be talking about a Group of Death… when there are only two groups at the tournament. But a group containing England, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany
certainly looks tougher on paper than one with hosts Romania, Denmark, Montenegro and Spain.

While we know about Spain and England’s brilliant record in this tournament and note that Germany have won it six times themselves, the Netherlands have never won it. But somewhat
surprisingly, Romania have, all the way back in 1962.

It’s Germany v Netherlands straight after England v Norway on Saturday, while the crucial Matchday 3 for Group B will take place on June 20 with Norway v Germany and Netherlands v England played simultaneously at 18:00.

England’s future stars: Ones to watch

Chris Rigg- When you keep on reading, you’ll see that team-mate Mikey Moore possesses an incredible record that is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon.

But Sunderland’s 17-year old Chris Rigg is a record-breaker in his own right. Aged 15 when he made his Sunderland debut, he became the second-youngest player to represent the club in its long history. When scoring against Crewe in an EFL Cup tie aged 16 in January 2023, he became the second-youngest player in Sunderland’s history to do so.

But tired of silver medals rather than gold ones, that same goal against Crewe made him the youngest player to score in the League Cup’s history and when scoring the final goal in a 5-0 thrashing of Southampton also in 2023, he became Sunderland’s youngest-ever scorer in a league match, beating a 50-year old record.

But though his early career has been marked by record goal-scoring feats, that’s unlikely to be the area where he really makes a name for himself. 42 appearances last season yielded just four goals but where he really impressed was with his all-round game at Sunderland as a hybrid Number 8/10.

Just as capable of putting in the tough tackles like Steven Gerrard as he is playing a beautiful pass out of Paul Scholes’ manual or coming out with a piece of skill that Phil Foden would be proud of, the boy can do the lot.

A full season in The Championship is a big achievement for one so young so in terms of the opposition he’s used to playing and the physicality he’s used to being up against, this could be a level where he’ll be looking to dominate.

Mikey Moore- Who is England’s youngest-ever goal scorer in European competitions? Rooney? Lineker? Did Walcott score in Europe before turning 18? No, none of those.

When netting against Elfsborg in the Europa League in January aged 17 and 172 days, Tottenham’s Mikey Moore beat the record of Tottenham legend Jimmy Greaves set back in 1957 as the youngest English-born goal scorer to net in a European competition. ‘Moore’ from where that came from? We’ll have to wait and see.

Competition was fierce for places in the wide forward positions for Spurs last season with more experienced players like Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and captain Son Heung-Min often preferred to Moore, limiting him to just 10 appearances in the league and a handful of appearances in the cup competitions.

Transfermarkt value him at 18 million pounds but it’s unlikely Spurs will be looking to sell. A more likely outcome is that he goes away on loan to the likes of West Brom or Birmingham in The Championship to get more minutes under his belt than what he’d likely get at White Hart Lane next year.

He’ll operate in one of the wide forward areas for England over the next two weeks and much of England’s progress will depend on his performance.

What formation are England likely to play?

Throughout qualifying, manager Will Antwi preferred to play a 3-4-3, or variations of it. Chelsea’s Joshua Acheampong, normally the skipper, played at the heart of a back three With Lewis Miley of Newcastle and Kiano Dyer, also of Chelsea, acting as the double-pivot in the heart of midfield and flanked by wing-backs.

But Chelsea have included Acheampong in their squad for the Club World Championship so England will have to make do without him here, a bitter loss as in addition to being their most dominant defender, he also possesses excellent leadership skills.

Lewis Miley also misses out after sustaining a broken meta-tarsal that not only rules him out of the tournament but also Newcastle’s pre-season plans.

As does Tyler Dibling, the talented wide forward who caught the eye of Southampton fans despite their miserable campaign with a promising first season where he scored four goals in all competitions and put in performances that make you think he’s a star for the future.

Antwi alternated between a straightforward front three and one where the lone striker played further up than the wide forwards, depending on player availability and the opposition. So, expect him to persist with a 3-4-3, or 3-4-2-1, in this tournament.

That said, predicting a likely XI on the day is easier said than done. Antwi used plenty of different players throughout the qualifying campaign, in different roles, rather than having mostly a set XI and only making one or two changes per game. So other than the players mentioned above, all of which should start, it’s anyone’s guess as to who might feature.

England Squad for Under 19 European Championships

Goalkeepers

 Finlay Herrick (West Ham United)

 Tommy Setford (Arsenal)

 Matthew Young (Sunderland)

Defenders

 Zach Abbott (Nottingham Forest)

 Joe Johnson (Luton Town)

 Caleb Kporha (Crystal Palace)

 Jayden Meghoma (Brentford)

 Stephen Mfuni (Manchester City)

 Harrison Murray-Campbell (Chelsea)

 Triston Rowe (Aston Villa)

Midfielders

 Kiano Dyer (Chelsea)

 Josh King (Fulham)

 Chris Rigg (Sunderland)

 Reiss Russell-Denny (Tottenham Hotspur)**

Forwards

 Samuel Amo-Ameyaw (RC Strasbourg)

 Jesse Derry (Crystal Palace)*

 Shumaira Mheuka (Chelsea)

 Mikey Moore (Tottenham Hotspur)

 Tom Watson (Sunderland)

 Ethan Wheatley (Manchester United)

 Kadan Young (Royal Antwerp, loan from Aston Villa)

*Replaces Tyler Dibling (Southampton)

**Replaces Lewis Miley (Newcastle United)

Stat-attack

Finally, here are some stats to consider before the big game gets under way.

• Norway had a perfect 100% record in qualifying, winning all of their six matches.
• With the exception of a 2-0 win over Belgium, Norway won all their other matches by a single goal.
• Despite Norway’s superior qualifying campaign, England were much the better side in defence, only conceding one goal across their six matches, when beating Bulgaria 2-1.
• Of the two sides, it’s been England’s medical team who have been the busiest. Their players suffered 88 fouls during qualifying, compared to just 62 for Norway.
• England’s ‘dirtiest’ player isn’t a bruising centre-back or a hard-tackling midfielder but rather, their most advanced player. Striker Shumaira Mheuka, also of Chelsea, committed 11 fouls during qualifying, more than anyone else on the England team. But none of them could have been too bad, given he wasn’t booked once in six matches.