Enes Sali is not as young as debutant Martin Ødegaard in 2014, but the 15-year-old Romanian does enter a list of very young European internationals. National coach Mirel Radoi let the Canadian born, exponent of the famous football academy La Masía of FC Barcelona, make his debut tonight with a short substitute against Liechtenstein. Sali is 15 years and 261 days old today. These are the youngest debutants ever in international football.
Sali came on tonight in Vaduz in the 82nd minute for Andrei Ivan. The team of national coach Mirel Radoi was already leading 0-2 at that time thanks to goals from Dennis Man and Nicușor Bancu.
Statistics factory Gracenote does not dare to put its hand in the fire – historical data is not known for all countries – but the top 30 of the record book of youngest internationals ever will not reach the very young Enes Sali worldwide.
Sali does not appear at the top of a considerable list of debuted students from the most exotic corners of the world. The youngest player ever in an international match, as far as Gracenote can tell, is one Lucas Knecht. The defender, who was born in the United States, played on behalf of the so-called Northern Mariana Islands in the international match against Guam on April 1, 2007. Knecht was 14 years and two days old during the 9-0 loss.
At the top of the standings (see top 5 in the table below) it is also teeming with names of boys from countries such as Turks and Caicos Islands, Benin or Myanmar. Little has been heard of Van Knecht since then. He kept his own Wiki page and an entry in the Northern Mariana Islands shirt to his puberty debut Guinness Book of Records about.
If we only look at Europe, Enes Sali’s debut is certainly worth mentioning. Including international friendlies, the player from Farul Constanta, the club of Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi, is just behind Martin Ødegaard, the Norwegian who was 15 years and 253 days old on August 27, 2014 when he made his debut against the United Arab Emirates.
If we only take the so-called competitive international matches, Sali is even the youngest European ever. Ødegaard was 15 years and 300 days old when he played his first competitive international match, in a 2014 European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria. Sali tonight so 39 days younger.
The youngest Orange international has been Hagenaar Mauk Weber for 90 years, who was 17 years, 3 months and 14 days old when the ADO defender made his debut against Denmark on June 14, 1931 in Copenhagen.
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