Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal could turn into the most youthful player in Spain’s set of experiences assuming that he makes his global presentation in Friday’s Euro 2024 qualifier in Georgia.
He will be just 16 years and 57 days old for the game, breaking the record that his current Barca teammate Gavi, who was 17 years and 62 days when they played, set in 2021.
BBC Game ganders at a few other male players matured 16 and under who have played senior worldwide football.
Ribs – Harry Wilson
Ribs gave a presentation to then Liverpool midfielder Harry Wilson before he had even played a club game, against Belgium in October 2013, when he was 16 years and 207 days old.
That was 108 days longer than Gareth Bale’s Wales record.
Up until his appearance off the bench in the 87th minute, there had been talk that England might have tried to call up Wilson, who was eligible through a grandfather.
When Wilson was just a toddler, his grandfather Peter Edwards bet £50 at odds of 2,500-1 on him playing for Wales, and he won £125,000.
A second cap for Wilson would take five years to come.
Ireland – Sam Johnston
Sam Johnston, matured 15 years and 153 days, played in Ireland’s very first worldwide apparatus, a 13-0 loss by Britain in 1882.
That record has never been broken, and the forward from the Distillery at the time, who passed away in 1910, is still believed to be the youngest European international player.
Before Irish independence, the Irish Football Association ran that team, which remained known as Ireland until it changed its name to Northern Ireland in 1954.
Between 1882 and 1886, Johnston of Belfast won five caps and scored twice. Tragically his group lost every one of the five games by a total score of 41-5.
Martin Odegaard of Norway The Stromsgodset midfielder Martin Odegaard, who is now the captain of Arsenal, made his debut for Norway when he was 15 years and 253 days old. He played all 90 minutes in a friendly match in August 2014 against the United Arab Emirates.
At that point, he had appeared in 14 games for his club.
When his team defeated Bulgaria in Oslo later that year, he became the youngest player to play in a European Championship qualifier at the age of 15 and 300 days.
He has won 51 caps since he was 24.
Brazil – Pele
He would ascend to worldwide fame a year after the fact, however on July 7, 1957 the intelligent Santos forward Pele made his Brazil debut at 16 years old years and nine months.
He scored that day against Argentina at the Maracana, a sign of great things to come.
Pele stunned at the 1958 World Cup, with the then 17-year-old hitting a full go-around against France in the semi-finals and scoring two times against competition has Sweden in the last.
With the Selecao, he won two more World Cups, but perhaps the most impressive feats of his remarkable career were those of the young Pele.
Cameroon – Samuel Eto’o
Samuel Eto’o, then, at that point, a Genuine Madrid young person, made his Cameroon debut the day preceding his sixteenth birthday celebration in a 5-0 well disposed rout by Costa Rica in 1997.
The striker, who made his name at Barcelona, is now president of the Cameroonian Football Federation and is the country’s all-time leading scorer with 56 goals in 118 caps.
Diego Maradona of Argentinos Juniors Diego Maradona made his debut for Argentina in a 1977 friendly against Hungary. He was 16 years old and 120 days old.
Two years later, against Scotland, he scored his first international goal.
He would proceed to turn into a football legend and chief the country to triumph at the 1986 World Cup.
Maradona managed the national team from 2008 to 2010 and died in 2020. He had 91 caps and scored 34 goals.
Lucas Knecht, Northern Mariana Islands Supposedly the youngest men’s international footballer is Lucas Knecht, who was 14 years old and two days when he played in Northern Mariana Islands’ 9-0 loss to Guam in the preliminary round of the East Asian Football Championship on April 1, 2007.
However, the Northern Mariana Islands, a self-governing United States commonwealth, do not belong to Fifa.
Three 14-year-olds have played for the national team, according to RSSSF statisticians. Joel Fruit and Kennedy Izuka made their debuts in a November 2012 game against Guam as well. They only fell 8-0 in this one.
