Arsenal prodigy Max Dowman is now the Champions League\u2019s youngest-ever player. What happened to the other teenagers in the top 10?<\/p>\n
Dowman came off the bench for Arsenal<\/a><\/strong> to become the first 15-year-old to play in the Champions League.<\/p>\n He immediately goes to the top of this list featuring, among others, Lamine Yamal<\/a><\/strong>. But there are also some cautionary tales for anyone assuming Dowman will now take Europe and the world by storm\u2026<\/p>\n Here are the 10 youngest players to feature in the Champions League\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 10) Charis Mavrias (Panathinaikos)<\/p>\n 16 years, 242 days The right-sided player made 54 appearances and became a Greece international before moving to Paolo Di Canio\u2019s Sunderland in 2013. Mavrias managed only seven appearances for the Black Cats, sandwiched like a stottie around a loan return to Panathinaikos.<\/p>\n From Wearside, Mavrias flitted around Germany, Croatia, Scotland and Cyprus before returning to Greece where, aged 31, he currently plays for Panetolikos.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 9) Warren Zaire-Emery (PSG)<\/p>\n 16 years, 232 days Since his breakthrough season, Zaire-Emery has become the youngest PSG player to do, well, pretty much everything. He was named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season in 2023\/24, and last season he made 55 appearances in PSG\u2019s Treble-winning campaign.<\/p>\n Zaire-Emery is also a France international with seven caps, having scored the all-important third in a 14-0 win over Gibraltar on his national team debut in 2023.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 8) Francesco Camarda (AC Milan)<\/p>\n 16 years, 226 days Last summer, Camarda joined Lecce on loan to gain more senior experience. The deal involves an option to buy, but a buy-back clause gives Milan full control over the striker\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 7) Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)<\/p>\n 16 years, 148 days The midfielder quickly established himself as a starter, playing four seasons in Belgium before winning Player of the Season in 2016\/17 prior to a move to Monaco.<\/p>\n After two years in France, Tielemans made the move to Leicester, initially on loan before a \u00a332million permanent switch. For the Foxes he scored the FA Cup-winning goal in 2021 while being linked with big-money moves to the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United.<\/p>\n To Aston Villa he went, though, where he was the Villans\u2019 Player of the Season last term.<\/p>\n MORE: Champions League prize money table<\/a>\u00a0| All 32 finals ranked<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 6) Alen Halilovic (Dinamo Zagreb)<\/p>\n 16 years, 128 days The then-wonderkid made his big move to Barcelona in 2014, but Halilovic could not justify the hype. He made only a single senior appearance for Barca before embarking upon a five country, nine-club tour of Europe, only once managing more than 20 league appearances in a season.<\/p>\n Halilovic, now 29, seems to have settled at\u00a0Fortuna Sittard, where he is currently into his second season. There the attacking midfielder has scored seven goals, the highest total he\u2019s managed since leaving\u00a0Dinamo Zagreb 11 years ago.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 5) Rayan Cherki (Lyon)<\/p>\n 16 years, 102 days The playmaker established himself for Les Gones, becoming a mainstay for his hometown team for five seasons before joining Manchester City this summer, when he also made his senior France debut.<\/p>\n Cherki cost City \u00a330.5million \u2013 a quarter of the price Liverpool paid for Florian Wirtz. Who got the better player?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 4) Celestine Babayaro (Anderlecht)<\/p>\n 16 years, 86 days After three seasons in the Anderlecht first team, Chelsea paid \u00a32.25million for Babayaro \u2013 then still a teenager \u2013 in 1997. The defender stuck around at Stamford Bridge for eight seasons, in half of which he played in half or more of their Premier League matches, before being sent to Newcastle by Jose Mourinho in 2005.<\/p>\n Babayaro\u2019s forgettable spell at Newcastle somehow lasted four years. After his release, he was\u00a0described as a \u201cdisgrace\u201d who \u201cdidn\u2019t pull his weight\u201d by\u00a0Toon chairman Freddy Shepherd.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3) Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)<\/p>\n 16 years, 68 days
Making his first senior appearance for Panathinaikos, Mavrias came off the bench for the last 12 minutes of the Greek side\u2019s 0-0 draw with Rubin Kazan in 2010\/11.<\/p>\n
Zaire-Emery became the youngest player to represent PSG in the Champions League when he came off the bench during\u00a0a 7\u20132 victory over Maccabi Haifa in October 2022, two-and-a-half months after becoming the French club\u2019s youngest player in any official competition. Later in the 2022\/23 season, 22 days before his 17th birthday, the midfielder\u00a0became the youngest player to start a Champions League knockout game in a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n
After scoring\u00a0485 goals in 89 matches for Milan\u2019s academy, (five-plus per game? Right\u2026) Camarda became the youngest player in Serie A history aged\u00a015 years, 260 days. Eleven months later, in October 2024, the forward was the youngest Italian to play in the Champions League when he came off the bench against Club Brugge. The forward netted shortly after coming on but the goal was VAR-ed \u2013 his yellow card for taking off his shirt still stood \u2013 and he is still waiting for his first senior goal for the Rossoneri.<\/p>\n
Around two months after his senior debut for Anderlecht, Tielemans became the youngest Belgian to play in the Champions League in October 2013 when he started against Olympiacos.<\/p>\n
As a last-minute substitute against PSG in October 2012, Halilovic became the Champions League\u2019s second-youngest player, a month after becoming the youngest debutant ever for\u00a0Dinamo Zagreb.<\/p>\n
Cherki\u2019s Lyon debut came in the Champions League as a substitute in a 2-0 defeat to Zenit in November 2019.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 31 years since the ex-Nigeria defender\u00a0became the Champions League\u2019s youngest player, around half an hour before he also set a new record for being the youngest player to be sent off in the Champions League when he received two yellow cards against Steaua Buchare\u0219t in a 1\u20131 draw in November 1994.<\/p>\n
The first sight of Yamal in the Champions League came during a\u00a05\u20130 win over Royal Antwerp in September 2023 when he became the competition\u2019s youngest starter.<\/p>\n