UEFA Cup youngsters take the field in U20 World Cup

By: Ian Rose | June 30th, 2007

Even with a topic as broad as the UEFA Cup, a blog beat that allows me to write about football in just about any European country I choose, I still seek out ways to write about the rest of the world, and since I’m going to be covering the U20 World Cup for the Scotland Offside as well as for The 12th Man magazine, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the connections between that tournament and my beloved UEFA Cup. Specifically, what young players from Intertoto and UEFA Cup teams will we see kicking around the pitch in Canada over the next few weeks? It turns out there are more than I would have guessed.

Here is a list of the 31 Cup players on the rosters of UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup teams, arranged by when they’ll enter the tournaments. On this list could be the next big star, so keep an eye on these kids.

My vote for most likely to be called for a handball goes to defender Mano (just Mano) from Portugal. If you play soccer for a living, and you go by a nickname, would it really be “hand”? I digress. Here’s the list.

Entering in Intertoto Cup Second Round:
Legia Warsaw (Poland) – FW Dawid Janczyk (Poland)
Rapid Vienna (Austria) – FW Erwin Hoffer, MF Veli Kaulak, GK Andreas Lukse (Austria)

Entering in Intertoto Cup Third Round:
Atletico Madrid (Spain) – FW Sergio Aguaro (Argentina), GK Ángel Bernabé (Spain)
Hamburg (Germany) – GK Alfonso Blanco, FW Jose Guerrero (Mexico)
Sampdoria (Italy) – FW Gabriel Ferrari (USA)

Entering in UEFA Cup, First Qualifying Round:
GKS Belchatow (Poland) – MF Jakub Feter, DF Artur Marciniak (Poland)
SV Ried (Austria) – MF Peter Hackmair (Austria)

Entering in UEFA Cup, Second Qualifying Round:
Aberdeen (Scotland) – DF Andrew Considine, GK Greg Kelly (Scotland)
Austria Vienna (Austria) – GK Bartholomej Kuru, DF Michael Madl, FW Rubin Okotie, MF Tomas Simkovik, DF Markus Suttner (Austria)

Entering in UEFA Cup, First Full Round
Belenenses (Portugal) – DF Mano (Portugal)
Bolton Wanderers (England) – DF Jaroslaw Fojut (Poland), FW Johann Smith (USA)
Fiorentina (Italy) – DF Ondřej Mazuch (Czech Republic)
Groningen (Netherlands) – DF Marcus Haber (Canada), FW Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
Heerenveen (Netherlands) – MF Will Johnson (Canada)
Palermo (Italy) – FW Edison Cavani (Uruguay)
Real Zaragoza (Spain) – MF Gerard Piqué (Spain)
Sporting Braga (Portugal) – FW Bruno Gama (Portugal)
Villareal (Spain) – MF Feliciano Condesso (Portugal), MF Marcos Garcia (Spain), FW Mathias Vidangossy (Chile)