From FA Youth Cup To FA Cup

Michael Carrick in 1999, Wayne Rooney in 2002 and Jesse Lingard in 2011. Three Manchester United men currently striving to lift the FA Cup for the first time after appearing in FA Youth Cup finals in the aforementioned years.

For Carrick and Rooney, there appears to be a palpable determination to get their hands on the trophy that is completely understandable for those who grew up with the final being the most high-profile fixture of the season. After competing at the last stage of the junior version of the tournament, the desire to follow in the footsteps of some of the grandest names in English football history will have burned even brighter.

Rooney attended the 1995 FA Cup final - against United - as an Everton supporter, only to take great delight in beating his former club in thrilling circumstances in last month's semi-final. "I think [the highlight] has been getting to the FA Cup final," he told United Review. "The win over Everton at Wembley was a big game for us, a big game for the club, and to get through to the final the way we did, winning in the last minute, gave the players a big boost.

"I've been in two finals, lost the two of them, and it's a trophy with huge tradition in English football and one which I'd be delighted to get my hands on."

Rooney was the best player on the pitch when Arsenal were outplayed and yet won the 2005 final after a penalty shoot-out. He was also the star man for Everton's youth team and scored the opening goal, his eighth in that season's run, only for Aston Villa to emerge victorious over the two legs 14 years ago. He has since scored in a Champions League final, a League Cup final and a Charity Shield match and, despite netting his spot-kick in that defeat to the Gunners, will be keen to further extend his legacy with another goal beneath the Wembley arch after finding the net against Bournemouth in the Reds' final league match of 2015/16.

Carrick enjoyed better fate at the last hurdle of the FA Youth Cup, as his West Ham side thrashed Coventry City 9-0 on aggregate in the same month as United pulled off the Treble. The elegant midfielder scored one of the goals past Chris Kirkland in the 6-0 success at Upton Park and has since won five Premier League titles, the Champions League and a League Cup. Yet, like Rooney, the FA Cup has continued to elude him and he was part of the side beaten in extra-time by Chelsea in 2007 with Joe Cole, a colleague in that Hammers side, a victor on the big day.

Lingard, of course, has no such tales of woe in the competition, except for a 2-1 defeat to Reading while on loan at Derby County last season. The 23-year-old has started each of United's six games on the road to Wembley and scored at Shrewsbury Town before making his maiden appearance at Wembley in the semi-final against Everton.

The midfielder has enjoyed a breakthrough season at the club and actually scored in the first leg of the 2011 FA Youth Cup final at Sheffield United. It means if he can find the net on Saturday, he will become only the fourth Red after Mark Hughes, Norman Whiteside and Paul Scholes to get on the scoresheet in both finals. Michael Owen, before he joined United, also did likewise for Liverpool.

Two of the triumphant 1963 FA Cup team, David Gaskell and Sir Bobby Charlton, won both trophies with United as did Hughes, Whiteside and Clayton Blackmore. From the Class of '92, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs all followed it up by lifting the senior prize. Phil Neville and Paul Scholes featured in the FA Youth Cup defeat to Leeds United a year later, before the former lifted it as captain in 1995.

Of course, United have fantastic history in both competitions. James Chester played in a Youth Cup final for the Reds in 2007 and scored for Hull City against Arsenal in the 2014 FA Cup showpiece. Meanwhile, John Gidman was part of the 1985 success over Everton for Ron Atkinson's Reds after lifting the FA Youth Cup with Aston Villa 13 years earlier.

Other men to win both trophies elsewhere over the years include Joe Cole and Michael Owen (as previously mentioned), John Wark, Steve Perryman, Paul Gascoigne, Adam Johnson, Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin.

Many players, some of them household names, never get to add an FA Cup winners' medal to their collection. The great United sides of the 1950s ended up losing two finals, the second after the tragedy of Munich, and, despite Sir Matt Busby finally enjoying more luck in 1963, the barren run until 1977 meant a generation failed to parade one of the game's most iconic pieces of silverware in front of the United fans.

That includes the incomparable George Best, who never got to play in a final, and other members of the fabled 1968 team that conquered Europe. Rooney and Carrick deserve to complete a clean sweep of domestic medals by overcoming Crystal Palace this weekend and hopefully we will see exactly what it means to two players who are among our most decorated individuals. As for Lingard, there is the promise that this could be the first of many senior trophies as we aim to provide a springboard for further success.

It all adds up to supplying the required motivation to end a 12-year wait for glory in a competition that, although criticised in some quarters, continues to captivate all supporters - young and old.

Credit: Manutd.com