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A tournament which gave players like Sir Bobby Charlton, Pep Guardiola and David Beckham one of their first tastes of international competition is poised for its 83rd edition this week. The Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup was first held in the Swiss city of Zurich in 1939, with FIFA assuming the patronage of the event in 1991 before it took on its current name in 1995. It welcomes clubs’ under-19 teams from around the world, and since 2018 a women’s tournament runs concurrently with the men’s. This year, Liverpool and Arsenal have been invited to the men’s and women’s tournaments respectively. Any players in their squads who are in need of any extra motivation heading into the tournament on May 17 and 18 need only look at some of the star names who have competed in the past. Manchester United’s ‘Busby Babes’ team – featuring Charlton and Duncan Edwards among others – triumphed in 1954, one of 18 titles won in this tournament by the Red Devils. A decade later, a United side featuring George Best took part. Best, who had just turned 18, wrote a postcard to his parents from the tournament, reporting: “The weather here is brilliant. The food isn’t too good. The girls are fabulous.” United’s ‘Class of 92’ also took part, with Beckham playing in the tournament alongside Gary Neville every year between 1992 and 1995. Paul Scholes also featured in 1992 and 1994, while another United star Roy Keane took part in the event for Nottingham Forest in 1990. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is another Blue Stars alumnus, having played at the 1988 tournament for Barcelona alongside Albert Ferrer. The pair would go on to help the Catalan giants become champions of Europe just four years later. Current Arsenal midfield star Lia Walti sees the event in her home country as an event the young Gunners should relish playing in. “Looking back at my childhood, it was mostly small tournaments we played,or tournaments at weekends when we used to camp overnight,” the Switzerland international told fifa.com. “So yes, I would have loved to have had more of those tournaments as they gave me some of the best memories from my childhood. I’m sure that nowadays women and girls have more opportunities than 15 or 20 or years ago when I was at that age. “At the beginning (of my career) we could hardly make a living from the game, the pitch conditions were bad and there were only a few spectators. “Now the time (for women’s football) has come, and everything is a bit closer to the men’s game. Not yet on a financial level, but the situation in general, with better pitch conditions, lots of fans, big stadiums and more support.” Walti described the Arsenal team which will go for glory in Zurich as “physical”. They will be up against Swiss sides Basel and Zurich, along with Swedish outfit Rosengard in Group A. The top two from the group advance to the semi-finals to take on the top two from Group B. The teams finishing third and fourth in each group will also face each other. The men’s competition follows the same format. Liverpool are in Group B alongside founding club Blue Stars, their Zurich neighbours Grasshopper and Brazilian side Corinthians. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Alex Iwobi targets maximum haul from Everton’s crucial last two games Carlos Alcaraz stunned by world number 135 Fabian Marozsan in Rome FA take no action against Oxford’s Ciaron Brown after spot-fixing investigation

The country currently in charge of the European Union's presidency says a boycott of next year's Paris Olympics is not on the table

MLB Power Rankings of which teams are most likely to become trade deadline sellers.A whole lot can change between now and the MLB trade deadline. Many teams have played about 40 games this year. Sparky Anderson knows it takes 40 games to know what a team is or isn’t. In this week’s M...

Gavi has provided an update on his future following Barcelona's La Liga title triumph.

The Eastern Conference Finals is set, and for the third time in four years, the Miami Heat are taking on the Boston Celtics.These two teams have gone through very different paths to make the Eastern Conference Finals, and it now sets up a rematch of last seasons’ series. Boston won that se...

Tonight is the conclusion of the New York Mets and Washington Nationals weekend series. The Mets enter this matchup in DC with a 2-1 series lead after Max Scherzer beat his former team and New York hung scored eight runs, all in the fifth inning, for an 8-2 victory. The Mets are 20-21 and Washington...

Car owner Rick Hendrick sees the talent in Ross Chastain

The New York Knicks' hopes of finally building another championship-contending team may be moving forward with Jalen Brunson aboard

MLB Rumors: Should Bryce Harper expect punishment?Despite missing a month of action, Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper could enter the NL MVP conversation shortly. Harper's numbers since returning to the lineup have been otherworldly. He underwent Tommy John surgery just five months ...

PGA Championship picks and best bets for the 2023 tournament at Oak Hill as we have outrights, Top 10s and more PGA Tour expert picks for the second major.The second major championship of the year is here as the 2023 PGA Championship takes to Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, a course with...

From one star athlete to another, Eagles' A.J. Brown recently told Ja Morant that Morant needs to be careful about who he calls his friends.Philadelphia Eagles wideout A.J. Brown offered some wise words to young NBA star Ja Morant after Morant was seen flashing a gun on his friend's In...

Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick will not be losing any sleep as he tries to guide his club past Coventry into the Sky Bet Championship play-off final. Carrick and his players were woken in the early hours on Sunday morning after fireworks were set off outside the Forest of Arden hotel at which they were staying ahead of their first-leg clash with the Sky Blues at the CBS Arena. Whether the ploy, which has been attributed to mischievous City fans, worked or not is moot after the teams fought out a 0-0 draw, and everything is still to play for in the return at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday evening. Asked if he was the sort of person who ever lost sleep over football matches, a relaxed Carrick said: “I’m generally a good sleeper fortunately. “Sometimes after games…before games I sleep well – most of the time before games, I sleep well. Sometimes after games, if it’s a night game especially… “It was a little bit worse when I was a player because there’s that little bit more adrenaline going through your system, but most of the time I sleep pretty well.” Mark Robins and his players can expect a hostile welcome and a packed Riverside as Boro attempt to book a trip to Wembley and a showdown with either derby rivals Sunderland or Luton, with the Hatters facing a 2-1 deficit as they welcome the Black Cats to Kenilworth Road on Tuesday evening. Asked if that reception might extend to a tit-for-tat last-night display of pyrotechnics, Carrick said: “Fireworks? I don’t know. “As I said after the game, I had a little chuckle and went back to sleep. Fans are fans, they want to create the atmosphere. “For me, it’s about in the stadium, the atmosphere and how the boys can feed off it. We’ll prepare and we’ll plan and we’ll go into the game exactly as we would for any other game. “But there’s no hiding that extra adrenaline. That extra spark that the supporters inside the stadium can create for us is vital to give us that boost, and I’m sure the boys will feel it and feed off it and hopefully respond to it very well. “But it won’t affect how we prepare for the game. That will be a natural kind of feeling that we benefit from.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live