The Portsmouth, Manchester United, West Ham United and Liverpool players once seen among world football’s top 100 rising stars

They were the talents with the world at their feet - and were recognised as such by the bible of football.

Long-running and respected title FourFourTwo compiled a definitive list of those they saw as the best young footballers in the game in 2001 - and it makes for fascinating viewing.

That’s especially the case if you’re a Pompey fan - with a whopping eight former Blues men making the top 100.

While it’s perhaps not too surprising to see the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Fernando Torres and Andres Iniesta make the cut, there may be one or two eyebrows raised at some of the other inclusions.

The likes of Millwall’s Cherno Samba, Nottingham Forest’s David Prutton, Celtic’s Shaun Maloney and Southampton’s Jay Lucas all managed to get the nod.

And coming in at 94 was a player who had far from an easy time at Fratton Park in Azar Karadas.

Karadas was playing for Norwegian outfit SK Brann at the time and was emerging as a striker of promise

That wasn’t the case at PO4, however, when his best outings came when converted to a makeshift defender amid five starts and 15 sub appearances between 2005 and 2006.

All of the other players included make it into the top 50 with Niko Kranjcar, then emerging at Dinamo Zagreb, coming it 45th.

When it comes to guessing who made the grade, perhaps a few would’t have expected Algerian playmaker Hassan Yebda to be named in 33rd spot.

Less surprising, however, is Jermain Defoe being ranked 30th after his goalscoring exploits as a youngster on loan at Bournemouth from West Ham, around the time of the article.

Very few would anticipated Gregory Vignal being placed 29th with the French left-back with Liverpoo,l along with FA Cup winner Milan Baros who was 21st.

Then it’s into the top 10 where Jermaine Pennant edges ahead of Dutch star Rafael van der Vaart in sixth.

Pompey fans will think the player named second on the list was entirely justified, with that little Argentinian wizard Andres D’Alessandro taking the spot behind number one Djibril Cisse - who was then with Auxerre.