The forgotten bowl cuts and baby cheeks of today's football superstars
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These hard-nosed top-level footballers were once some of the cutest kids around
Wayne Rooney has got us feeling all nostalgic.
Just check out this snap of l'il Wayne in his youth days playing for East Villa during the 1995-96 season in Liverpool.
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“I still remember this being taken,” big Wazza said of the shot in which his team-mates squint in the sun - a throwback to the good old days when shirts were super-baggy and football pitches were covered in knee-high grass and hidden dog mess. Glory days, indeed.
But we're not going to stop there, so sorry footballing world, we’re throwing it back to a time when the world's best and brightest footballers were wonderfully awkward adolescents.
Antoine Griezmann
Here’s a young Griezmann, meeting Lyon's Brazilian striker Sonny Anderson, showing that his love for hair dye started young.
Gareth Bale
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Here is a picture of Gareth Bale in his early days at Southampton. Angelic.
Harry Kane
How do you look good when standing next to David Beckham?
You don’t - even with the baby face, Harry.
Mesut Ozil & Manuel Neuer
Here’s Manuel Neuer sporting a perfect bowl cut next to Mesut Ozil in the 1993-94 line-up of their school football team. Two World Cup-winners in that team - they must have absolutely walked their league.
Carli Lloyd
The 2015 World Cup winner's fluorescent t-shirt and polka dot sweater show that she clearly grew up in an era where nearly every kid wanted to be an extra in The Goonies or a Cyndi Lauper video.
She was definitely on to something with the polka dots though.
David Luiz
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David Luiz perfected this straight-backed, chin-up-with-a-vacant-expression scowl early on – so much so that it’s still a popular pose, external with the Chelsea defender to this day.
Cristiano Ronaldo
You’d be sad too if you spent your youth seemingly imprisoned behind the net of a football goal. But it all turned out OK for Real Madrid’s main man, who has pretty much owned the goal ever since.
Lionel Messi
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Here’s proof that Messi was lifting trophies at an age when many of us were still kicking fly-aways around.
Luis Suarez
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This young Uruguayan team are super-happy with life, apart from the lad standing next to Luis Suarez!
Mario Gotze
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Cosmetics brands should look to the Borussia Dortmund man when researching the secret to anti–ageing, because this baby-faced German looks pretty much exactly the same today.
Tammy Abraham & Dominic Solanke
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Swansea's Tammy Abraham was getting the feels on a trip down memory lane, posting pics of his early career at Chelsea with Liverpool's young gun Dominic Solanke.
They've gone all the way from the Blues' youth team to full England internationals. This is a pair to watch for the future.
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