ALL TIME RANKING FOR YOUNGEST EUROPEAN SCORERS

• Sep 11, 2023
• History Statistics

All-time ranking for youngest scorers of European national teams

In light of the recent achievement of Spain's new prodigy Lamine Yamal, we publish for the first time a ranking of the youngest European national team scorers of all time.
As you know, Yamal scored in a match vs Georgia at the age of 16 years 57 days. In the historical ranking, he took 3rd place. Remarkably, he is the only one from the top 10 who entered the ranking with a goal scored in a competitive match. The remaining 9 players in the table did it in the friendlies.
Few words about those with whom Yamal shares the podium. The second-placed József Horváth stands out because he scored in his memorable match a brace, instead of a single goal like all the others.
The eternal record in this category was established back at the dawn of European football. On 25 February 1882, a centre forward of the Irish national team Samuel Johnston has equalized vs Wales to 1-1 to become Ireland's first ever goal-scorer. The game ended with Irish harsh 1-7 defeat.
After quite a long period of time, it turned out that Johnston was not only the very first, but also the youngest scorer in the history of Ireland (later renamed Northern Ireland as a result of the split of the island into two parts). His exact age was 15 years 160 days.
The mentioned game vs Wales was just the 2nd in the history for Ireland team, played 7 days after the debut game vs England which brought even more humiliating result (0-13). Samuel Johnston has played there, too.
On the picture of the team selected for those two inauguration games, Johnston is on the far right (leaning against pillar). His appearance may cause confusion. He looks well older than 15 years. But the Irish sources confirm that the age indicated is correct. After all, Johnston was a blacksmith; this trade obviously contributed to early manhood.

	ALL-TIME YOUNGEST	GOAL SCORERS	OF	EUROPEAN	NATIONAL	TEAMS
	Player	Country	Age	Date	Game	Tourn.
1	Samuel Johnston	Ireland	15-160	25.02.1882	Wales 1-7	Fr.
2	József Horváth	Hungary	16-012	07/10/1906	Bohemia 4-4	Fr.
3	Lamine Yamal	Spain	16-057	08/09/2023	Georgia 7-1	EQ
4	Vincent Thill	Luxembourg	16-117	31/05/2016	Nigeria 1-3	Fr.
5	Włodzimierz Lubański	Poland	16-188	04/09/1963	Norway 9-0	Fr.
6	Fernand Nisot	Belgium	16-334	10/03/1912	Netherlands 1-2	Fr.
7	Imre Schlosser	Hungary	17-024	04/11/1906	Austria 3-1	Fr.
8	Paul Van Himst	Belgium	17-028	30/10/1960	Hungary 2-1	Fr.
9	Nuri Şahin	Turkey	17-033	08/10/2005	Germany 2-1	Fr.
10	Jan van Breda Kolff	Netherlands	17-074	02/04/1911	Belgium 3-1	Fr.