Top 10 revealed
Owen 5th, Yamal 9th – where does Bosnia’s Alajbegovic rank among youngest WC scorers?
©TM/IMAGO
A few months back, not many people gave Bosnia-Herzegovina much hope of even making the 2026 World Cup, with Wales and giants Italy standing in their way in the play-offs. Nevertheless, the Balkan nation beat both of those teams on penalties to book their place in North America’s festival of football. They have now potentially gone one step further, after a 3-1 win against Qatar gave them a very good chance of making the knockout stages of this summer’s tournament.
They rank as the third-placed team in group B, but are likely to qualify for the round of 32 having picked up four points with a -1 goal difference. The goal that got them on their way to the vital victory came from a young player being touted as a future superstar. The 18-year-old attacker Kerim Alajbegovic scored the opening goal for Bosnia with a superb strike from the edge of the box after beating a couple of players to join the youngest goalscorers in World Cup history. He will sign for Bayer Leverkusen from Red Bull Salzburg this summer and the future looks bright, but where does he now rank on the all-time World Cup youngest scorers list?
The youngest scorers in World Cup history
Leading the way remains the great Brazilian Pelé, who scored in the 1958 tournament aged just 17 years and seven months, as the future icon announced himself on the world stage. Second goes back even further – all the way to the 1930 tournament when Manuel Rosas scored for Mexico aged 18 years and three months. In third place is Spain’s Gavi, who scored in the 2022 tournament in Qatar when he was aged 18 years and three months. Ibrahim Mbaye scored for Senegal in their defeat to France when he was just 18 years and four months in this summer’s tournament and takes fourth.
Michael Owen completes the top five, having scored for England in the 1998 World Cup when he was 18 years and six months old. Miklós Kovács is sixth after scoring in the 1930 tournament for Romania aged 18 years and six months, whilst Russian Dmitriy Sychev (18 years & seven months) is seventh after scoring in 2002. Alajbegovic is now eighth on the list at 18 years and nine months after Wednesday evening’s goal. He beats ninth placed Lamine Yamal and tenth placed Lionel Messi.
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