TEENAGE sensation, Lamine Yamal has broken Celestine Babayaro’s longstanding record of being the youngest player to start in the UEFA Champions League as Barcelona secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Porto in Portugal on Wednesday.
The Spain youth international of Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, was handed a start by Xavi Hernandez as the Spanish giants maintained their 100 per cent win in this season competition at the Estadio do Dragao.
In featuring against the Portuguese champions, Yamal made history as the youngest ever player to start in the Champions League aged 16 years and 83 days, breaking the record held by Babayaro.
The former Super Eagles defender and Atlanta Olympic Games hero was 16 years and 86 days old when he started for RSC Anderlecht against FC Steaua Bucureşti on November 23, 1994.
“Aged 16 years and 83 days, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is the youngest player ever to start a Champions League match, surpassing Celestine Babayaro’s record (16y 86d) from November 1994,” Opta wrote.
Just three years ago, Babayaro also lost his record of being the youngest ever player to feature in the Champons League to Youssoufa Moukoko.
Moukoko achieved the feat when he featured for during Borussia Dortmund clash against Zenit St Petersburg in Russia at 16 years and 18 days.
The Germany youth international of Cameroonian descent was a 58th-minute substitute as the German side secured a comeback 2-1 win over Zenit St Petersburg in 2020.
Babayaro was further pushed down to third position by Yamal last month after he made his first appearance in the Champions League against Royal Antwerp to become the second youngest player ever to play in the Champions League.
While Babayaro’s records as the youngest ever to play and start in the Champions League may have been thrown off the history books, he remains the youngest player to be sent off having only lasted for 37 minutes in his celebrated debut appearance.
