With the emergence of Conor Wickham in recent months and Jack Wilshere’s devastatingly effective performance against Barcelona last week seemingly the talk of the town, now, more so than ever before, people are clamouring to know where the next teenage prodigy will spring up from. Here, we’ll take a look at six youngsters currently plying their trade for Liverpool which are destined to make the grade in the very near future – some you may have heard of, some have already featured for the first-team whereas one or two are products of Rodolfo Borrell’s increasingly successful youth-team policy at the club and still play for the academy.

Borrell recently opined: “I think we have some really exciting players coming through and I am very proud that some of them were involved in the build-up to the match against Sparta Prague.” Liverpool have placed special emphasis on integrating and producing first-team worthy youngsters over the last 18 months, and with Kenny Dalglish now at the helm, you could be catching a glimpse, if you haven’t done so already, of all of the players listed in the coming seasons. Let’s kick off with the list shall we?

Conor Coady – Coady had the honour of captaining the England under-17 side to the European Championships last summer and he has recently forced his way into the first-team picture at Anfield after a string of impressive performances for the academy. Capable of playing at centre half or in midfield, Coady is tough but with a touch of class to his play. The 18 year-old recently made the bench for the club in their Europa League knockout away fixture to Sparta Prague and current manager Kenny Dalglish is known to be a fan.

Andre Wisdom – Coady’s partner at the heart of defence during England’s victorious European Championship campaign. Bounced back from heartache in the final against Spain after initially scoring an own goal, to score the equaliser that set England on their way to victory. Great strength of character aside, Wisdom looks comfortable with the ball at his feet and  is capable of playing all across the back four. The 18 year-old defender has drawn comparisons in some quarters with Sol Campbell.

Raheem Sterling – The Jamaican born forward has grabbed all the headlines in recent weeks for his, shall we say, sterling efforts for the Liverpool youth team in their recent 9-0 victory in the FA Youth Cup over Southend, with Sterling bagging five goals. Poached from QPR in 2010, the 16 year-old travelled with the first-team squad for Liverpool’s recent Europa League clash away at Sparta Prague. Although he eventually failed to make the bench, big things are expected of Sterling and with the ball at his feet and in full flight, he bares an uncanny likeness to a certain John Barnes.

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Martin Kelly – Technically, defender Martin Kelly appears to have already made the grade at Liverpool, but it’s worth remembering that the young England hopeful is still just 20 years of age and relatively inexperienced despite his mature performances for the first-team to date. The fact that he’s keeping current first-choice England right back Glen Johnson out of his preferred position at the club, with Johnson having been shunted over to left back to accommodate the ever-improving Kelly, says it all. Superb performances against Everton and Chelsea this season mark Kelly out as a fine defender with a great temperament and he could well be England’s first-choice right back by the next World Cup. Kelly has already made 21 appearances for the club across all competitions this season and he could have a huge impact if he keeps going at this rate over the next few years, for both club and country.

Conor Thomas – Amidst all the furore of transfer deadline day at Anfield, you’d be forgiven for letting slip from your mind the signing of  17 year-old Conor Thomas on loan from Coventry with a view to a permanent move. The midfielder has been hailed as Coventry’s brightest prospect for years and there was outcry among sections of the club’s faithful support that they had let such a talent slip through their fingers so easily just days after he’d made his first-team debut in the FA Cup against Birmingham. The nature of the deal is a strange one to say the least, but Liverpool were said to be tracking Thomas for months  prior to his switch. Apparently the club decided to swoop quickly in the January transfer window to ward off any potential interest from rival Premier League clubs in the future, which in itself, tells you the youngster must have bags of potential.

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Jack Robinson – The all-action left back made headlines last season when he became the youngest ever player to make a first team appearance for the club after a cameo appearance off the bench in the final game of last season against Hull. A regular at England youth team level, the 17 year old attacking minded full-back is also known to love a crunching tackle. Liverpool vice-captain Jamie Carragher has stated of Robinson: “He’s really young and playing in a higher age group – for England as well. I’ve heard a lot of positive things about him. I wasn’t even in the youth team when I first went full-time and he was a regular at 15 which shows you he has something about him.” With the club’s relative paucity of first-team options at left back, Robinson could well be one to watch for next season as he continues his meteoric rise up the footballing ladder.

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Last Tuesday, Jermain Defoe commented publicly on his frustration of not being picked for Tottenham as often as he would like. He told the Daily Mail: “It’s been hard. You start to think: ‘What am I doing here?’ I’m used to playing in big games.” This attitude is just what Tottenham could do without in what is going to be a massive few months at White Hart Lane.

“I remember playing against Charlton (in the FA Cup in January) and scoring two goals, then the next weekend I missed out. And it was like when I decided to leave here and went to Portsmouth (in 2008) because I got to a situation where I thought: ‘I’m not sitting on the bench.’” – Defoe.

He is only going to be more angry now that he did not feature against Milan at White hart Lane, after scoring a brace against Wolves the weekend before. To an extent, I can understand his frustration, but to say he thought about leaving in January is just selfish and ridiculous.

Defoe has clearly got something to offer, his goals not his opinion. His two goals against Wolves came out of nothing, and that is the kind of thing Tottenham need from a striker at the moment. Not this sort of sulking in the media’s eye. I find it so frustrating that some footballers think the game revolves around their individual success and not their team’s. Corluka and Kranjcar, who have not kicked up a fuss despite playing well, put the likes of Defoe to shame.

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I admit, Defoe has suffered as a result of the Van Der Vaart influence. Harry plays one man in attack with Van Der Vaart just behind him, this season that has rarely been Defoe. But he has been injured for a lot of the season, or banned. He can hardly expect to get into the Tottenham team that has played so well in the Champions League without him.

As an aside, Tottenham do not need any players moaning, they need a squad of players focused on playing their best and contributing to the best of their ability. Deofe has often shown his ability and last season he scored 24 goals. But even then, he dominated the smaller teams and has not produced goals often enough against bigger clubs.

In the last three years against Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Manchester City, Defoe has scored just 4 goals in 27 appearances. Meanwhile, against Hull, Portsmouth, Burnley, Wigan and West Ham he has scored an impressive 16 goals in 17 appearances.

People remember the hat-tricks and the 5 v Wigan and label him as a reliable goal scorer. But what they forget is that he is ineffective against the best teams. He is not, by any stretch of the imagination, invaluable to the team.

Tottenham are going through one of the most exciting periods in their history. They do not need these distractions from a player who is more interested in his own success than the team’s. If he cannot tolerate being on the bench and wants to leave, like he did in 2008, then so be it. If his attitude does not change, Tottenham should let him move in the summer.

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As we head into the second leg of the last 16 Champions League tie between Manchester United and Marseille, Stephane Mbia, who plays for the Ligue 1 outfit, has signalled his intention to join their English opponents in the near future. The Cameroonian midfielder has sounded out a move to Old Trafford and will be looking to impress Sir Alex Ferguson in the return leg in the coming weeks.

Stephan Mbia told L’Equipe that “I want to go as high as possible. First I want to do well at Marseille, so my performances will one day send me to a club like Manchester United. Real Madrid are also an attractive side, but the club of my dreams is Manchester United. I feel fine at Marseille for now, but you have to have ambition.”

Mbia has plenty of quality to go with that ambition. The powerful midfielder completed a £10 million plus move to Marseille back in 2009 after a five-year spell with Rennes. Standing at 6ft 2in tall, Mbia is certainly a presence in the middle of the park and unsurprisingly the defensive midfielder has drawn comparisons with Patrick Vieira and the like.

The 24-year-old has been capped by Cameroon 32 times and his style of play would appear to fit the Premier League perfectly. Manchester United are in need of some midfield reinforcements, with Owen Hargreaves’ future at the club looking uncertain, while Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are both set to retire within the next couple of years, so a swoop for the £16 million rated man may be on the cards in the summer.

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Sporting Lisbon and Vasco da Gama will face off in the Beach Soccer Club World Cup final after both posted semi-final victories on Friday.Sporting edged Lokomotiv Moscow 5-4 despite a late charge from the Russians, who rallied from 5-2 down to draw within a goal with four minutes remaining.

Alan nodded Sporting into the lead on four minutes, and produced a sublime lob to double the Portuguese club’s lead nine minutes later.

Belchior got in on the act with a header one minute later and Lokomotiv were reeling.

The Russians pulled a goal back through Ilya Leonov, but Madjer found the net at the far post to keep Sporting ahead 4-1.

Shaykov’s powerful strike reduced the deficit to 4-2, but Fernando got one back for Sporting with a magnificent volley in the 31st minute.

That proved to be enough for Sporting, though Lokomotiv made the finish interesting as Igor Borsuk and Shaykov both produced late goals.

Meanwhile, Vasco da Gama saw off fellow Brazilian club Flamengo 5-4 to join Sporting in Saturday’s final.

Flamengo striker Andre, who leads the tournament in scoring, improved his tally to 13 with an impressive four goals, though his individual feat was not enough to lead his side to the final.

Betinho broke the deadlock for Vasco in just the third minute, and Bruno Xavier’s header saw Flamengo fall two goals behind.

Andre nabbed his first in the sixth minute, but Pampero’s powerful effort put the score 3-1 in favour of Vasco seven minutes later.

Andre and Xavier then traded goals as score reached 4-2, and Andre’s hat-trick goal drew Flamengo within a goal.

Pampero’s second gave Vasco some breathing space, and Andre was only able to add one more as time expired.

Chelsea are looking to the future, as they appear to be keen on signing highly rated Uruguayan starlet Juan Cruz Mascia. According to reports in the Daily Mail, the young attacker has been invited to London for talks, in the first official approach for the player.

Chelsea have moved quickly for the young marksman, which is just as well as his goal scoring ability hasn’t gone unnoticed by a host of top clubs from England, Italy and Spain. His current club Miramar are reportedly willing to listen to offers around the million pound mark, which could prove to be a shrewd piece of business from the Blues.

Dubbed the next Diego Forlan, Mascia registered an impressive 6 times for Uruguay in the recent South American Under 17 Championships, where they finished runners up to Brazil.

Mascia is adept with either foot and his tall frame gives him a strong aerial ability. If Chelsea do snare Mascia his adjustment to life in West London will be made all the more easy by his strong grasp of the English language.

It appears Chelsea are on to a winner if they can complete a deal for Miramar’s young star.

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Real Madrid won their first Copa del Rey trophy since 1993 after defeating Barcelona 1-0 in extra-time on Wednesday.Jose Mourinho’s squad also won their first trophy since 2008 at Valencia’s Mestalla, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s terrific header in the 103rd minute.

The fixture between Spain’s two biggest clubs is dubbed ‘El Clasico’, but this match was far from a classic, with Mourinho’s side stifling Barcelona with their excellent defence and a crowded midfield.

Barcelona enjoyed most of the early possession but could not break down a stubborn Real side, who had the majority of the first-half chances.

The best of those came 10 minutes before half-time, with Barcelona’s back-up goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto, who was called up to replace Victor Valdes, required to make a low save to deny Ronaldo.

Real nearly opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time when Mesut Oezil’s ball was nodded onto the post by the impressive Pepe, who could only watch as the ball bounced wide after hitting the woodwork.

Barcelona improved early in the second half and Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta went close to scoring the opener, while Pedro did find the back of the net but had his goal correctly disallowed for offside after Messi had set him up, but played the pass marginally late.

Angel Di Maria, who was fantastic for the victors, had a chance to win the game in normal time, but his strike was well saved by Pinto as the match went to extra-time.

The goal eventually came thanks to fine work down the left hand side from Marcelo and Di Maria, with the Argentine producing an inch-perfect cross for Ronaldo, who met the ball with a powerful header to delight the Madrid half of the crowd.

Barcelona tried in vain to equalise and although Di Maria was sent off for a second yellow card in the dying stages of the second period of extra time, they were too late to grab a winner.

The result was the first defeat in a final for Pep Guardiola since he took over as coach of the Catalan giants in 2008 and could give Real a psychological edge heading into their two-legged Champions League semi-final with Barca, beginning on April 27.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has praised in-form attacker Maxi Rodriguez after his hat-trick in their 5-2 win over Fulham on Monday.The Argentine has scored seven goals in his last three games, flourishing under Dalglish after showing only glimpses of his best under predecessor Roy Hodgson.

His strikes on Monday at Craven Cottage, along with goals from Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez, saw the Reds move above Tottenham and into fifth spot in the English Premier League.

Maxi sealed his hat-trick with a 25-yard drive into the top corner, and Dalglish said he deserved the praise he was receiving.

“He’s a really intelligent footballer. He knows where to go and when to go,” Dalglish told BBC.

“Everything’s happening for him at the moment. He deserves the accolades.”

“He’s a very clever player. A lot of balls have been falling to him in the box, but you’ve got to be there to put them away and he has been.”

Fulham had won their last four games at Craven Cottage, but could not recover after conceding three goals in the opening 16 minutes against the Reds.

Second-half goals from attacker Moussa Dembele and midfielder Steve Sidwell proved to be nothing more than consolation strikes.

Dalglish’s team is unbeaten in their last five outings and he believes missing out on the Europa League’s fifth spot would not be a blow.

“Nobody would ever have anticipated the run that the boys have been on since January, would they? It’s been unbelievable,” he said.

“Even if we don’t get fifth, they’ve been absolutely fantastic. For us, the position hasn’t been as important as the response of the players.”

Fulham manager Mark Hughes said the game was all over after his side conceded three goals in the opening 15 minutes.

“Consecutive errors led to goals,” Hughes said.

“On too many occasions we were giving away unforced errors and giving the ball away in the wrong part of the pitch.”

“The game was gone in the first 15 minutes. It wasn’t something we’d expected the way we’ve played in recent months.”

Hughes said he was keen to get his players into the dressing rooms to rectify the problems they had in the first half.

“We’re not the type of team to shore up and go for damage limitation,” he said.

“We’ve been fantastic for the majority of the season. We were all taken aback by how the game panned out today (and) we just need to learn from it.”

Hughes said Uruguayan Suarez was afforded too much freedom by his defence and the attacker took advantage, creating chances and getting on the scoresheet.

“He’s a talented player. He’s an exceptional player, always in pockets of space which in fairness we allowed him,” Hughes said.

“If we dictate him then it’s OK, but he dictated us today.”

Fulham sit in 10th following the loss, while Liverpool are still in contention for the Champions League qualifying spot at four points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City, who have a game in hand.

New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union moved to first and second respectively in the MLS Eastern Conference with 1-0 wins on Saturday.The Red Bulls moved a point clear on top with a 1-0 win over the Kansas City Wizards, which came from a 21st-minute strike by English striker Luke Rodgers.

Philadelphia kept the pressure on with a 1-0 win at home against the San Jose Earthquakes, with French midfielder Sebastien Le Toux scoring the winner 14 minutes from time.

The Columbus Crew enjoyed a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, a second-half brace from Venezuelan striker Emilio Renteria proving the difference between the two sides, and the Colorado Rapids were held to a 1-1 draw at home by the struggling Chicago Fire.

The Seattle Sounders cruised to a 3-0 win over Toronto with Brad Evans scoring a double to add to Alvaro Fernandez’s opener, and Chivas USA had goals from Nick LaBrocca, Marcos Mondaini and Alejandro Moreno to thank for their 3-0 win over New England Revolution.

The Portland Timbers enjoyed a 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake, with Kenny Cooper scoring the winner after 22 minutes.

Tottenham Hotspur favourite and former Argentina international Osvaldo Ardiles has heralded Barcelona as the ‘future of the football’.Barca defeated Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, capturing their fourth European Cup in emphatic fashion.

It was their second Champions League triumph in three years under coach Pep Guardiola, whose reign has also yielded three consecutive Spanish league titles.

Speaking at Sunday’s London Legends’ Cup, a post-season tournament contested by retired players at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, 1978 World Cup winner Ardiles had no hesitation in declaring this Barca side one of the greatest.

“Barcelona are the team to beat, they are the best team in the world,” Ardiles said.

“I think they are probably one of the best in the history of football. I think they are an extraordinary team with a few wonderful players like Lionel Messi.”

“I think they are going to reign in football for a long, long time. They are all very young as well, it’s a real pleasure.”

“It’s the future of football, this is how football is going to be played in the future certainly.”

Lille striker Gervinho is set to announce this week which club he will join in the summer. The player has admitted a liking for the Premier League with Newcastle planning a bid of around £9.5m but there is also likely to be interest from Liverpool and Arsenal. There is also likely to be interest from Spain and Germany, so there is certainly no shortage of offers for talented Ivorian.

Gervinho’s actual name is Gervais Yao Kouassi who plays as striker for Lille in French Lique 1 – although the player can also play as a winger. Gervinho started his professional career in Belgium playing for Beveren – where he scored 14 league goals in around 2 seasons. In 2007, he moved to France and played for Le Mans and impressed despite the fact that he only scored 8 goals from 59 appearances.

In May, 2008 Gervinho was linked with a move away from Le Mans with other French teams interested but Arsenal were also linked. After hearing about the interest from Arsenal Gervinho suggested it would be a dream to play for the North London club. However, despite the continued interest from Arsenal his next move occurred in France from Le Mans to Lille for a fee of 8 million Euros.

Since moving to Lille Gervinho has really started to fulfil that potential with his goal-scoring; this season hitting 15 goals. The 24 year old striker has also made a number of appearances for his country, since making his debut in 2007. Since then he has made 19 appearances and scored 5 goals. Despite interest from a number of clubs reports in France suggest that Arsenal is the team he is most likely to join. It will certainly be interesting to see how he gets on in the Premier League if those reports proved to be correct. However, the African players that have come in to the English top flight have generally done well – so there is no reason to think Gervinho will be any different.

Check out this video on Gervinho:

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