Who are the youngest players to feature in the UEFA Champions League? Europe’s elite club competition has provided the perfect platform for some of the continent’s rawest talents to showcase their skills and abilities.
Since it’s re-brand in 1992, the UEFA Champions League has hosted some of the world’s greatest players with the vast majority of them making their bow in the competition from an incredibly young age. Whilst you were still at school, some of these guys were already strutting their stuff on the biggest stage in club football. What could have been, eh?
Anyhow, here at SportsLens, we take a look back at the youngest players to feature in the UEFA Champions League. Some names will be instantly recognisable, some still have their best years ahead of them and others have perhaps not hit the heights that were expected of them.
Youngest Champions League Players
At the time of writing, Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko is the youngest player to feature in the UEFA Champions League. Moukoko made his debut just 18 days after his sixteenth birthday. Not a bad belated present, not bad at all.
Moukoko was a big hit in Dortmund‘s youth teams and was very advanced for his age, thus accelerating himself into the senior squad. He set the record as the youngest ever UEFA Champions League player in 2020 when he came on as a sub against Zenit St Petersburg.
FC Barcelona’s latest prodigy Lamine Yamal is next on the list. The Spanish sensation made his UEFA Champions League debut just 68 days after his sixteenth birthday, coming on for the final 22 minutes in a 5-0 rout vs Antwerp in 2023.
The remaining three players who make up the five youngest players to feature in the UEFA Champions League are Celestine Babayaro – who Chelsea and Newcastle fans will remember – French winger Rayan Cherki and Alen Halilović, formerly of Dinamo Zagreb. All of these players hadn’t seen their seventeenth birthday’s when they made their bows.
Lamine Yamal becomes the second-youngest player in Champions League history 👏#UCL pic.twitter.com/kE2TDXUpwS
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 23, 2023
The Ten Youngest Players To Feature In The UEFA Champions League
The ten youngest players to feature in the UEFA Champions League were all still 16 when they first appeared in Europe’s elite competition. It’s a pretty impressive stat when you think about it. Ahead of match day six in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League, the best UK betting sites have all of the latest markets and odds with four teams still to be determined for the round of 16.
Arsenal are tipped to give some of their young hopefuls a run out when they take on PSV but it’s only Ethan Nwaneri who can break in to the top ten youngest players to feature in the UEFA Champions League. The young Gunner set a new Premier League record last year, becoming the youngest player to feature in the top-flight when he was still 15.
10) – Dario Essugo – 16 years, 268 days old (Sporting CP vs Ajax – 7th December 2021)
9) – Kenneth Zohore – 16 years, 262 days old (FC København vs Barcelona – 20th October 2010)
8) – Charalampos Mavrias – 16 years, 241 days old (Panathinaikos vs Rubin Kazan – 20th October 2010)
7) – Warren Zaïre-Emery – 16 years, 231 days old(Paris Saint-Germain vs Maccabi Haifa – 25th October 2022)
6) – Youri Tielemans – 16 years, 148 days old (Anderlecht vs Olympiakos – 2nd October 2013)
5) – Alen Halilović – 16 years, 128 days old (Dinamo Zagreb vs Paris Saint-Germain – 24th October 2012)
4) – Rayan Cherki – 16 years, 102 days old (Lyon vs Zenit St Petersburg – 27th November 2019)
3) – Celestine Babayaro – 16 years, 86 days old (Anderlecht vs FCSB – 23rd November 1994)
2) – Lamine Yamal – 16 years, 68 days old (Barcelona vs Royal Antwerp – 19th September 2023)
1) – Youssoufa Moukoko – 16 years, 18 days old (Borussia Dortmund vs Zenit St Petersburg – 8th December 2020)
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