Walcott is just one of many precocious sporting stars to announce themselves on the international stage while still only teenagers. For some, like tennis icon Boris Becker and Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, that initial success paved the way to glittering sporting careers. Others, such as British sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis, have struggled to cope with finding fame at an early age.

Diver Tom Daley hit the headlines last year when he became Britain's second youngest male Olympian after qualifying for the Beijing Games, aged just 13 years old. The youngest British male participant was Kenneth Lester a cox to a rowing pair at the 1960 Games in Rome, aged 13 years and 144 days. Daley didn't win a medal at the Olympics but has already won gold medals at the European Championships and is expected to be a contender at the London Olympics in 2012.

The German tennis player Boris Becker burst onto the international stage like no other player before him when he became the youngest person ever and the first qualifier to win the Wimbledon men's singles title in 1985, aged 17 years old. He beat the South African Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. Amazingly, he then repeated the feat a year later by winning the title again. He won six grand slam tennis titles in all during his career and was ranked the number one player in the world in 1991.

India's Sachin Tendulkar made his test debut as a 16-year-old against Pakistan and the pace attack of Waqar Younis in 1989. Younis bowled him out early in that match but Tendulker has gone on to become one of the greatest batsman of all time with more than 80 centuries in test and one-day internationals. He had also managed to score a century on his first-class debut for Bombay against Gujarat in the 1988/89 season aged 15 years and 232 days.

The most talked about amateur golfer since Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie joined the professional ranks at just 15 years old. She had already won the US Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 2003 as a 13-year-old and became the youngest player to take part in a US men's tournament in Hawaii at the 2004 Sony Open. Four years on Wie has yet to win on the US women's or men's tours and has not won any tournament since that 2003 win. However, she has earned millions of dollars in sponsorship and appearance fees.

Romanian Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, stunned the world and her fellow competitors at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to score a perfect '10'. She went on to score six more perfect 10s and won three gold medals in total at the Games. She won two more gold medals at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 before retiring aged just 22 in 1984. Her feats are unlikely to ever be repeated as officials have since ruled than athletes must be a minimum of 16 years old to compete in the Olympics.

British sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis looked set to dominate the 100m athletics event after becoming the fastest teenager in history at the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada in 2001. Francis clocked an unofficial time of 9.97 in the second round of qualifying for the 100m (a malfunctioning wind-gauge rendered the time technically "unofficial"). He followed it up with 10.04sec at a Golden League meeting in Paris the following year. However, aside from an Olympic relay gold in 2004, the former World Youth and World Junior champion has so far not delivered on his early promise.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or Pele as he is better known, was selected in the Brazilian World Cup squad in 1958 aged just 17. Unlike Theo Walcott he had a significant impact on the tournament. He scored against Wales in the early rounds before following it up with a hat-trick against France in the semi-final. He then scored two more in the final in a 5-2 victory over the hosts, Sweden, to secure the trophy for Brazil. After an astonishingly successful career that included three World Cup winners medals and more than 1,000 goals, including 97 goals in 92 appearances for Brazil, Pele is now considered the greatest footballer to have ever lived.