| This year in South Africa not many nations have used | | | | youthful and refreshing playing style, creativity and |
| very young players. Out of 736 performers there are | | | | inspiration, tactical maturity and efficiency, fan |
| only 7 players below age 20, which means less than | | | | recognition as a result of entertaining performances, |
| one percent. Therefore it certainly cannot be called the | | | | role models for young players and positive attitude-fair |
| youth soccer world cup. | | | | play are taken into account when selecting the player. |
| The African nations are normally very keen on bringing | | | | On Saturday 26th with the start of the new phase |
| their young players along. They might not have a well | | | | after the preliminaries there were six candidate players |
| known youth soccer championship like it might happen | | | | for the "fifa" youth soccer award, Ki Sung-Yueng from |
| in some European countries, but traditionally they have | | | | South Korea, Nicolas Lodeiro from Uruguay, Jonathan |
| participated with them. | | | | Mensah, Samuel Inkoom and Andre Ayew from |
| However this time Ivory Coast did not have one player | | | | Ghana and Jozy Altidore from USA performing in |
| beneath his 20s. The Super Eagles of Nigeria included | | | | different matches. The players of Uruguay and Ghana |
| only one player in his teens, the Monaco midfielder | | | | will have more chances as their teams are still in the |
| Haruna Lukman and so did Ghana. | | | | World Cup. |
| Switzerland had Xherdan Shaqiri an 18 year old, who is | | | | Who knows if the coaches behave in the same way |
| not playing in the youth soccer tournament anymore, | | | | when coaching youth soccer players? Very often |
| as he played quite well with FC Basel this season. | | | | they are more instinctive and might not always follow |
| Denmark had the youngest player overall, Christian | | | | the advice of the older fellows in their team, nor the |
| Eriksen, who is going to turn 19 only next February and | | | | one of the coach. For example a case, that was a big |
| was raised in several youth soccer teams until he | | | | uproar in Italy before the world cup, was the case of |
| ended up at Ajax. | | | | Mario Ballotelli, playing for Inter Milan, who was not |
| For the celebration of youth soccer there is the | | | | taken along even though a highly talented player, |
| Hyundai Best Youth Player Award, which is given to | | | | because of his lack of discipline. He certainly would not |
| the young soccer player with the most impact in this | | | | have won the Youth Soccer World Cup Award! |
| 2010 World Cup. Criteria such as exceptional skills, | | | | |