Source: Daily_Mail
High hopes! England starlets set for European Championship bow
England's Under 17s kick off their European Championship campaign in Germany on Wednesday, a tournament which has proved the launchpad for some of the biggest stars in modern football.
Nicolas Anelka (1995), Michael Owen (96), Iker Casillas (97), Petr Cech (99), Fernando Torres (01), Wayne Rooney (02), Cesc Fabregas (04) and Bojan Krkic (07) have all graduated with style from this competition.
John Peacock's 18-man England squad features some familiar names too.
Reading's Jacob Walcott is a distant cousin of Arsenal's Theo and Aston Villa's Gary Gardner is the brother of Craig, also at Villa.
Jack Wilshere has played in Arsenal's first team this season, Tottenham's John Bostock made a £1.25million transfer from Crystal Palace last year and Jonjo Shelvey played his 20th game of the season for Charlton on Sunday against Norwich.
English interest resides in the other squads too, including Turkey's 17-year-old winger Gokhan Tore, born in Germany, he was signed by Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen in January.
Arsenal's Oguzhan Ozyakup, also of Turkish descent, is the Dutch captain.
England qualified for the finals with a 100 per cent record from a group involving Portugal and Serbia.
They have been drawn with Holland, Turkey and hosts Germany. The top three teams in each group will qualify for the Under 17 World Cup, in Nigeria, in October and November.
