“At last year’s World Cup I counted at least 13 mentions of a ‘golden generation’: Morocco, Australia, Senegal, Switzerland, England, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Croatia, Canada, Ecuador, the USA and France (though not, oddly, the winners Argentina),” writes Jason Duvall. “When did this phrase become an established part of the football lexicon, and who first used it to describe the England team of the early-2000s?”
The idea of a golden generation has long since passed into cliché, but the phrase was used more sparingly – and with genuine excitement – when it first appeared….
