The new millennium generation starts to show their face in football. The Mute Cup in Qatar is the first to be played with players born in 2001 or later. In all, there are 79 athletes.
The Spanish national team, sensation of the first round after thrashing Costa Rica by 7 to 0, is the team with the greatest number of boys of this generation. There are seven in total, including Barcelona midfielder Gavi, who scored a goal and became the third youngest player to find the net, scoring at the age of 18 years and 110 days.
He is second only to Pelé (17 years and 239 days when he first scored in 1958 in Sweden) and Mexico’s Manuel Rosas (18 years and 93 days when he scored in Uruguay in 1930).
And the game Spain and Costa Rica was the meeting of the kids, since the Central American team is second in number of boys, with six. The youngest Costa Rican is left-back Bennette, a player from Sunderland, England, who turned 18 in June.
In addition to Gavi, others also stood out in the first round. England relied on their team to thrash Iran 6-2. Borussia Dortmund midfielder Bellingham, 19, was the first born this century to score a goal in a World Cup. And Saka, 21, of Arsenal, found the net twice.
The youngest is Borussia Dortmund striker Youssoufa Moukoko, who turned 18 on 20 November. Born in Cameroon, he moved to Germany with his family at the age of 10 to Hamburg and today defends the colors of the German national team.
Moukoko is considered one of the main promises of German football, accumulating records and expressive numbers. He was European Under-21 champions with the national team and became the youngest player to reach the ten-goal mark in the Bundesliga.
The Brazilian team has two athletes born in this century. Forwards Rodrygo, from Real Madrid, and Gabriel Martinelli, from Arsenal, were born in 2001. But the youth of the attack contrasts with the average age of coach Tite’s team.
The Brazilian team has the fifth highest average age at the World Cup in Qatar, with 28.4 years.
The oldest are Iran (29.4), Mexico (29.0), Argentina (28.5) and Tunisia (28.5). Iranians and Mexicans don’t have any players born after 2001 on their roster. Denmark doesn’t either, but has an average age of 27.7 years.
The record for the youngest player to play in a World Cup belongs to the Irishman Norman Whitside, who played in the 1982 World Cup, in Spain, aged 17 years and 40 days. At the time, he broke the record set by Pelé, who had played in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, aged 17 years and 234 days.
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