Where are they now? The four 17-year-olds to score a Champions League knockout stage goal
Arsenal wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri has become only the fourth player in Champions League history to score a goal in the knockout stages before turning 18.
Nwaneri doubled Arsenal’s lead in the early stages of the first leg of Arsenal’s Round of 16 clash away to Eredivisie champions PSV.
It was an emphatic close-range finish, having been set up by fellow Arsenal academy graduate Myles Lewis Skelly – the first time two English teenagers have combined for a goal in Champions League history.
Here are the only four 17-year-olds to have scored a Champions League knockout goal.
Bojan Krkic
The year before Pep Guardiola changed football forever and led Barcelona to the treble, Frank Rijkaard gave opportunities to a youngster from La Masia by the name of Bojan.
The winger broke Lionel Messi’s record to become Barca’s youngest debutant in La Liga (a record that’s since been surpassed by a certain Lamine Yamal – who has time on his side to join this club).
Bojan scored 12 goals that season – a tally he’d never surpass – and opened his account in the Champions League with the match-winner away to Schalke in the first leg of the quarter-finals, a 1-0 win for Barcelona.
At the end of that breakthrough season, Bojan had the chance to join the Spain squad that went on to win Euro 2008, but he declined citing personal reasons. Years later he revealed he was suffering badly from anxiety at the time.
Bojan went on to win everything there was to win with his boyhood club. He was a useful squad player in the glory years under Pep Guardiola, but he never quite nailed down a nailed-on place in the starting XI.
In subsequent years he represented the likes of Roma, AC Milan and Ajax, later doing well for himself at Stoke City, but never quite reached the heights expected. He retired at age 32 after seeing out his career at Japanese outfit Vissel Kobe, and nowadays he works as a ‘football coordinator’ back at Barcelona, working closely with the kids from La Masia.
Aged 17 years, 217 days when he scored that goal against Schalke, he remains the youngest-ever goalscorer of a Champions League knockout goal.
Jamal Musiala
Having represented England at youth level and spent eight years developing his skills at Chelsea, prodigiously talented youngster Musiala joined Bayern’s youth ranks in 2019 to continue his journey. He made his debut in the 2019-20 treble-winning campaign and soon enough became a regular first-team fixture.
Musiala scored his first Champions League goal with Bayern’s second in their 4-1 victory away to Lazio in the Round of 16.
Fast forward four years and Musiala is fully realising his potential. He’s only 22 and is closing in on his 200th appearance for Bayern, having established himself as one of the most dynamic young forwards in Europe.
Jude Bellingham
Thirteen years after Bojan, Musiala became only the second 17-year-old to score in a Champions League knockout tie. But it only took another couple of months for Bellingham to make it three.
The most expensive 17-year-old in football history when he was signed from Birmingham City, Bellingham quickly delivered on the hype. It didn’t take long at all for him to secure his place as one of the Bundesliga giants’ best and most important players.
Bellingham opened the scoring, levelling the tie, in the second leg of Dortmund’s quarter-final against Manchester City in April 2021. Pep Guardiola’s men produced a 2-1 comeback at the Westfalenstadion to progress that night, but it was already obvious that night Dortmund’s crown jewel was destined for the very top.
Sure enough, he’s now a £100million Galactico at Real Madrid, a Champions League winner that made the Ballon d’Or podium. Needless to say he’s living up to his potential.
Ethan Nwaneri
This is only the beginning.
The sky’s the limit for Hale End’s latest superstar.
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