Neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo characteristic among the many highest-scoring youngsters in Champions League historical past.
That’s a shocking reality given their superhuman profession achievements and the truth that so many soccer stars have used Europe’s premier membership competitors as a springboard for his or her blossoming profession.
In the event you’re adequate, you’re sufficiently old. Listed here are the male gamers to have scored probably the most targets as youngsters within the Champions League.
8. Yakubu Ayegbeni
Now recognised extra for his Barclaysman standing, ‘the Yak’ truly has a novel place in Champions League historical past as one of many competitors’s most prolific youngsters.
He discovered type within the Champions League upon signing for Maccabi Haifa, together with a penalty in opposition to Manchester United and a hat-trick in opposition to Olympiakos. It was that type which prompted a transfer to England with Portsmouth.
Yakubu managed 5 targets in simply 5 video games earlier than leaving his teenage years.
7. Jude Bellingham
It seems like Bellingham has now been round scoring worldies and standing along with his arms out beside him in celebration for years, when in precise truth he’s 21. Twenty-one.
He performed 23 occasions as a youngster within the competitors, scoring six targets from midfield with Borussia Dortmund after shifting from Birmingham. He’s now in a tussle to win the Ballon d’Or with teammate Vinicius Junior. Time flies while you’re bloody good at soccer.
6. Raul
Actual Madrid’s hometown hero, it by some means goes unappreciated as to precisely how good Raul was, for therefore lengthy.
He scored six occasions in eight Champions League video games as a youngster for Actual Madrid, a swift begin on his solution to changing into the primary participant to attain 50 targets within the competitors and make over 100 appearances.
5. Karim Benzema
The legendary Frenchman burst onto the scene as a youngster at Lyon and that was represented in his begin within the Champions League, bagging six targets from 9 video games earlier than his teen years have been over, together with a aim on his competitors debut.
It’s taken him some time to correctly obtain his flowers, however all these years later, Benzema is appropriately remembered as one of many best fashionable forwards, enjoying facilitator to Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale at Actual Madrid earlier than changing into the principle man and firing them to European glory himself in 2022.
Of the 5 Champions Leagues he gained, his particular person performances to clinch the ultimate one make it probably the most memorable.
4. Patrick Kluivert
Seven targets from his 18 video games as a youngster within the Champions League was merely the start of a joyous profession for Kluivert.
Crucial of these seven targets as a youngster was the one which gained Ajax the Champions League in 1995, firing within the winner after 85 minutes in opposition to a star-studded Milan and changing into the youngest participant to attain in a Champions League remaining within the course of.
Baller.
3. Erling Haaland
Scoring a first-half hat-trick on his Champions League debut for Pink Bull Salzburg in opposition to Genk, Haaland appeared like a particular expertise from that very first recreation and is but to decelerate.
He scored 10 targets as a youngster within the competitors and bagged 12 targets in a single Champions League marketing campaign as Manchester Metropolis gained the trophy for the primary time to finish the treble in 2022-23.
Freak.
2. Kylian Mbappe
Mbappe grew to become the second-youngest Frenchman to attain within the Champions League behind Benzema when he fired in a aim in Monaco’s 5-3 defeat away to Manchester Metropolis in 2017.
That was the primary of many and the start of an ascent to particular person brilliance at PSG
The ahead scored 5 and assisted six from 10 video games as PSG made the ultimate in 2020, earlier than dropping to Bayern Munich.
He’s not slowed down in Madrid both, though Mbappe is but to win the Champions League.
1. Lamine Yamal
Yamal has surpassed Mbappe to change into the highest-scoring teenager in Champions League historical past, breaking the document in November 2026.
The 19-year-old set the brand new document after scoring in Barcelona’s 3-0 victory over Aston Villa, his 14th profession aim within the Champions League.
Contemplating he doesn’t flip 20 till subsequent summer season, there may be loads of time for Yamal to stretch his lead even additional.
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TRY A QUIZ: Are you able to identify each supervisor to have gained the Champions League?
