Top young scorers in the World Cup
Football (or soccer to some people) is an exciting game that is followed by billions of people around the world. There are tons of enthusiastic football fans and basically all players dream of representing their countries national team. Some names of great players that you may know, or that are talked about a lot in the history of football, also had successful careers already in their young age. Some of these exceptional young players and football top scorers are discussed here.
Here is a list of some of the top young scorers in the history of the World Cup, and their age of when they scored their first World Cup goal.
1. Pelé: 17 years and 234 days
Pelé is an icon. He is by most football fans and experts considered the best player who ever lived. Before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden he was not a big name in football, but this Brazilian player really shone when he more or less dominated this World Cup event at an age of only 17 years, leading Brazil to the final win. Pelé went on to lift 2 more World Cup trophies but will never be forgotten for his 1958 heroics as a young man.
2. Michael Owens: 18 years and 190 days
England's Michael Owen was a phenomenon, and he was an extremely lethal striker in his early days before numerous injuries wrecked his career. At the age of 18, he burst onto the scene for England at the 1998 World Cup held in France by scoring a tying goal against Romania, and he also scored a goal against Argentina in the second round. He is also still the only football player to have scored in 4 major tournaments for England.
3. Nicolae Kovács: 18 years and 198 days
Nicolae Kovács (or Nicolae Covaci or Kovács Miklós in Hungarian) played when Romania faced Peru in the their opening game in 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, and this promising young teenager managed to end up on the scoreboard in the Romanian's 3-1 victory. His actual first national team goal was however in a friendly game against Bulgaria in 1929, when Kovács was only 17 years and 261 days old.
4. Manuel Rosas: 18 years and 94 days
Manuel Rosas is a former Mexican star who played at the very first 1930 World Cup and managed to set several records at that time. One record he set when he became the youngest footballer to score in the World Cup. This record was broken by Pelé 28 years later but Manuel Rosas as of today still the second youngest World Cup scorer. Other World Cup records he set was being the first player to score a penalty and the first player to score an own goal.
Created: 29 October 2020
Last updated: 8 February 2021
Follow us
