Star Nurseries

Mark Webber's podium at the Nurburgring couple of weeks back marks the coming of age of a formula 1 driver who scored the first championship points in the very first race of his formula 1 career and the icing on the cake was that this race took place on his home turf in front of his home crowd. Webber's celebrations made it quite clear what that result meant to him.

The most important thing about this result was that he was driving a Minardi which usually was not even expected to finish races let alone scoring points. This was the great thing about a team like Minardi which despite its poor results was able to provide the formula one fans drivers like Anthiny Davidson, Alex Yoong, Mark Webber and last but not the least, the reigning champion of the formula one world, Fernando Alonso.

Yes, not many people may be aware of the fact that Alonso started out his formula one career with Minardi. This post is a tribute to the various “Nurseries” that produce great sports stars over the years, the great thing about them is the fact that they themselves might not be so good in the sport but they have always been good in spotting talent early.

This takes us to a football club nicknamed “The Academy of Football”, West Ham United truly deserves this name since they have made a tremendous contribution to the world of football, especially English Football. There is a long list of good football players who joined West Ham in their youth but most of them moved on to better clubs, some of them are:

Player	Age when joined West Ham	Stay(years)	Next Club
Bobby Moore	17	16	Fulham
Geoff Hurst	18	13	Stoke City
Trevor Brooking	19	17	-
Paul Ince	18	4	Manchester United
Rio Ferdinand	17	5	Leeds United
Frank Lampard	16	7	Chelsea
Joe Cole	17	5	Chelsea
Michael Carrick	17	6	Tottenham
Jermain Defoe	17	5	Tottenham
Glenn Johnson	17	2	Chelsea

Nigel Reo Coker, who was tipped as a future prospect, has already left the club and it wont be surprising if Mark Noble and Anton Ferdinand also one day leave in search of greener pastures.