How many successful Golden generations?

[Bored Of Education]

So another Golden generation has failed (and I have never been impressed by them) which makes me wonder whether any pre-hyped Golden generation has achieved anything. There must have been one to inspire the phrase but I am too drunk and euphoric to check.

Of course, these Wales and Iceland teams are genuinely the golden generations of their countries but weren't predicted as such.

[1974ddr]

How many successful Golden generations?

Not in international football, but...

[G-Man]

How many successful Golden generations?

The "Golden Generation" thing seems to be a rather recent hype. I don't think there was much talk of golden generations, with the sense of expectation and entitlement that goes with it, with the West-German team if 1972-74.

I wonder if Holland had that kind of thing in 1974. There seemed to be a sense of expectation and entitlement, which the Germans also had in 1974, albeit in their case as hosts.

Brazil 1982 was hyped as a golden generation, which it was. Like so many others of that appellation, they failed.

Of the hyped GGs, only Spain really fulfilled their potential between 2008 and 2012.

It strikes me that the term tends to be applied to nations that are starved of success, rather than those that tend to win.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

How many successful Golden generations?

It was first widely used to describe the Portugal team that came through together in the mid-90s (Figo, Costa, Paulo Sousa) who won back-to-back World Youth Cups. So yes, it was to highlight that for Portugal to suddenly have three or four world-class players, when they arguably hadn't produced any since Eusebio, was a once in a generation thing.

Some people tried to describe the crop of players who all emerged at broadly the same time for England - Lampard, Terry, Cole, Ferdinand, Beckham, Gerrard, Owen - as our "golden generation", but I never thought it really stuck with England, a) because none of them were really as good as their hype, and b) because England, being a football-mad country of 50 million people, ought to be producing players of at least their quality, all the time. It shouldn't be a freak thing for England to have a decent side, although one does begin to wonder when the next one will come along.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

How many successful Golden generations?

England's golden generation reached three successive quarter finals so well done to them.