The 'top five' leagues' youngest debutants: Camarda overtaking Maldini and what about Moukoko's age?

The players of AC Milan worked hard to get the one-nil win against Fiorentina last night, and the important victory in front of a well-stocked San Siro was further enhanced by the debut of the newest gem of the Rossoneri, Francesco Camarda.

The pressure of the Italian public paid off. The new pearl of Italian football replaced Luka Jovic on the field in the 83rd minute and felt what it was like to play in front of the fans who welcomed him with thunderous applause. At the age of 15 years and 260 days, Camarda became the youngest debutant in the history of Serie A, thus overtaking Wisdom Amey (Italian with Togolese and Nigerian roots), who played his first match in Bologna's jersey at the age of 15 years and 274 days in May 2021. For the young player of Milan, it is probably even more significant, in a way also a burden, that he left Paolo Maldini behind in the eternal list of club debutants.

The inimitable defender and captain of the Rossoneri was 16 years and 208 days old when, in January 1985, he replaced the injured Sergio Battistini in a match against Udinese. The rest is history. In the recent history of the seven-time European champion, the case of Gianluigi Donnaruma is remembered, to whom Siniša Mihajlović gave his debut on October 25, 2015 at the age of 16 years and 242 days, in a victory over Sassuolo (2-1). Donnarumma was also in the first team's training before, he defended before his league debut and during the pre-season, which later led to him becoming the 'no.1' of the great Milanese club.

At the tender age of 16, Camarda has already managed to do some things that his peers have not. In the Youth Champions League, he became the youngest Italian scorer, scoring two goals against Newcastle when he was 15 years and 195 days old. Also, on his debut in Primavera, he immediately hit the net and thus became the first footballer born in 2008 to do so.

Yesterday's feat by a former-intended kickboxer and a guy who still doesn't have a professional contract with AC Milan - FIFA rules dictate that a player must be at least 16 years old to sign such a paper, for him it will probably happen on March 10, 2024 - made us let's comb through the history books and see who are the youngest debutants in the top five leagues. Camarda is now unrivaled in Serie A, but there are guys in other major competitions who played their first senior minutes at a slightly younger age.

Arsenal's uncut gem Ethan Nwaneri is the youngest on that list. In September 2022, Mikel Arteta decided to give the kid of Nigerian roots the great honor of making his debut for the senior team in the last moments of a convincing away win over Brentford (3-0). Nwaneri was 15 years and 181 days old at the time, becoming the first player in Premier League history to play in a league match under the age of 16. Before him, the record was held by Harvey Elliott, who played for the first time in Liverpool's jersey at the age of 16 years and 30 days against Fulham in 2019.

"He trained several times with us and I felt it was the right time to give him a chance. I think it sends a very good message to the other young players at the club. I told him the day before the game that he would be with us and he had to be ready. He was ready. I congratulated him on his debut and told him to enjoy himself," Mikel Arteta said at the time.

It was Nwaneri's only match in the Gunners' first team so far, now he spends most of his time in the club's younger selections, waiting for a new chance to play with older teammates.

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Interestingly, AC Milan has two record holders in the category of youngest debutants. In addition to Camarda in Serie A, teammate Luca Romero did it before him in Primera DIvision. Born in Mexico to Argentinian parents, Romero was on the verge of a move to Barcelona's famous La Masia academy in 2011, but due to strict FIFA regulations, that deal soon collapsed. Four years later, Romero arrived in Mallorca's youth team where he worked wonders and according to some claims scored as many as 230 goals in 108 games! It was clear that a debut for the first team was only a matter of time and it happened in June 2020. It was a time when the coronavirus pandemic hit the world and everyone was still trying to cope with the chaos that this biggest scourge of the modern age brought. The Spanish championship resumed after a break of several months, and on June 24, 2020, Romero played in Mallorca's defeat to Real Madrid (02). He was then 15 years and 219 days old, and if he had not been interrupted by the pandemic, he would probably have been even younger...

"He is left-footed, fast, determined and competitive. It was the prototype of an Argentinian 'no.10'. He reminds me a lot of David Silva", Dani Pendin, one of the members of Mallorca's coaching staff, said at the time.

Romero's stay in Mallorca was not without success. After the relegation of the club from the exotic Spanish island into Segunda Division in the following season, he played eight games for the first team and scored one goal. Having refused a contract extension, he soon moved to Lazio for a training compensation in the amount of 200,000 euros. The Italian media soon began to write about how he impressed Maurizio Sarri during the pre-season, which is why he made his debut for the Sky Blues already at the opening of the season at Olimpico, in a victory over Spezia (6-1). Romero replaced Felipe Anderson in the 61st minute, and at 16 years and 280 days he became the youngest first-team player in the club's history, ahead of Lorenzo de Silvestri, who played his first match in July 2005 in the third round of the Intertoto Cup against Finnish side Tampere at the age of 17 years and 60 of the day. During the 2021/22 season, Romero played for the first time for the Argentina national team, in March last year. It was unofficially said at the time that Lionel Messi told PSG directors to bring him to the Parc des Princes as soon as possible. Instead, he ended up in AC Milan this summer, without compensation.

The biggest mystery on this list is Youssoufa Moukoko. We all know that the young German broke records with ease, that at the age of 13 he played his first match for Dortmund in the under-17 competition, that in the 2019/20 season he would also make his debut for the under-19 boys' team at the age of 14, and his debut in that he rounded off the competition with an incredible six goals in a 9-2 victory over Wuppertaler. Let's not go into all the records that Moukoko has set, among other things, he became the youngest scorer in the history of Dortmund at the age of 16 and with 50 Bundesliga appearances, and since the regulations of the Bundesliga were changed so that the lower limit for the debut was exactly 16 years, he made his debut under Lucian Favre in January 2020. In the 85th minute, he replaced Erling Haaland, and the scoreboard already showed 5-2.

He then became the youngest debutant in Bundesliga history. And all of that would have been nice, if a huge dust-up had not been raised later when the Daily Mail started a debate, and the German newspaper Spiegel then claimed that his date of birth was fake! That is, that he is four years older than he is. This paper came into possession of his real birth certificate from Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, which showed that Moukoko was actually born on July 19, 2000, not November 20, 2004. Nevertheless, the whole farce was somehow covered up, so Moukoko still states that he was born in 2004 and that he is 19 years old, although long before Spiegel started the avalanche, everyone was suspicious of everything that happened around his performances in the younger categories, later and the first team of Millionaires. He was later ranked among the youngest debutants in the history of the German national team. He played his first match at 17 years and 361 days, thus becoming the first youngest German player since Uwe Zeller in 1954!

Is he twenty-three and a half now or just 19 a few days ago? It's probably the first, but since the Germans falsified the papers, it was somehow quickly covered up...

In the end, we are left with the French Ligue 1, in which the record for the youngest debutant has stood for more than 63 years! The record holder Kalman Gerencseri, former midfielder of Lens and Auxerre, born in France to parents who emigrated from Hungary before World War I. The French public simply called him Kalman, as the surname was difficult to pronounce. Gerencseri made his debut for the first team of Lens at the age of 15 years and 225 days in a defeat against Monaco (0-1), on August 21, 1960. He remained a club legend, played over 170 games in nine seasons, and died at the end of August this year.

In French football, there has been a long debate about whether Gerencseri remained the record holder after Laurent Paganelli's debut for Saint-Etienne against PSG in August 1978. However, it turned out that Paganelli was "only" 15 years and about 300 days old in his first game, so Gerencseri remained on top. And has been there for more than six decades! The more recent history of the French championship saw Albert Rafetraniaina's debut for Nice 27 days after his 16th birthday, in a defeat against Reims (1-3) in October 2012. However, the midfielder born in Madagascar failed to leave a deeper mark at the Cote d'Azur club, which is why has been a lower-league football player in recent years.

THE YOUNGEST DEBUTANTS IN THE TOP FIVE LEAGUES

SERIE A: Francesco CAMARDA (Milan) 15 years 260 days

(November 25, 2023, AC Milan - Fiorentina 1-0)

PREMIER LEAGUE: Ethan NWANERI (Arsenal) 15 years 181 days

(September 18, 2022, Brentford - Arsenal 0-3)

BUNDESLIGA: Youssoufa MOUKOKO (Borussia Dortmund) 16 years 1 day

(November 21, 2020, Hertha - Borussia Dortmund 2-5)

LIGUE 1: Kalman GERENCSERI (Lens) 15 years 225 days

(August 21, 1960, Lens - Monaco 0-1)

LA LIGA: Luca ROMERO (Majorca) 15 years 219 days

(June 24, 2020, Real Madrid - Mallorca 2-0)