When did the term ‘golden generation’ originate in football?

“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. Anecdotal evidence suggests it was first used to describe the Portugal players who won the under-20 World Cup in either 1989 and 1991 (or both, in the case of the precocious João Pinto). When they graduated to the senior team, that group reached the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in successive European Championships between 1996 and 2004. The most celebrated of them all, Luis Figo, was still around when Portugal made it to the World Cup semi-final in 2006.

It’s impossible to say when the phrase was first used anywhere, ever, but a look through the newspaper archive suggests that, in England at least, it was popularised when talking about Portugal before and during Euro 2000. Here’s one example, from Amy Lawrence’s Observer feature on Luis Figo:

For a decade Portugal have been classic underachievers. Figo belongs to a golden generation, an exceptional group crowned the best in Europe at under-17 level and world champions at under-20. With the inventive Rui Costa and the twinkle-toed João Pinto, when they joined up with Vítor Baía, Fernando Couto and Paulo Sousa (who were only a year or so older than the wonderkids) in the senior squad, Portugal