It was only a matter of time, and the time came for young Youssoufa Moukoko on Friday. On the last Bundesliga match day of 2020, Moukoko became the youngest Bundesliga goal scorer ever, providing a stunning finish in the 60th minute against Union Berlin at the tender age of 16 years and 28 days.
Moukoko turned 16 on Nov. 20 and immediately began setting all sorts of age records. A day after his birthday, he became the youngest player to appear in a Bundesliga match. A couple weeks later, he became the youngest player to appear in the Champions League.
We here at The18 have been tracking his career for a long time — going back to when he was a 12-year-old on BVB’s U-17 team — so we were hardly surprised when Moukoko scored his first goal at the senior level on Friday. After all, he scored 33 goals in 21 matches for the U-15s and 50 goals in 28 appearances at the U-17 level; he had even ripped one off the post before finally scoring on Friday.
The record-setting goal, as with most good things in European football these days, started with an American. Gio Reyna won the ball back to prevent a counter and quickly started an attack the other way. Seconds later, Raphaël Guerreiro played a perfectly weighted ball into Moukoko’s path. Moukoko provided an instinctive finish, blasting the ball near post past a helpless Andreas Luthe.
WHAT A MOMENT
Youssoufa Moukoko becomes the youngest goalscorer in Bundesliga history! @ESPNFC pic.twitter.com/AgmSfiNXi6— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 18, 2020
The previous record for youngest Bundesliga goal scorer belonged to Florian Wirtz, who scored for Bayer Leverkusen at the age of 17 years, 34 days earlier this season. Christian Pulisic was 17 years, six months and 30 days old when he scored his first Bundesliga goal in 2017. (Reyna was also 17 when he scored his first Bundesliga goal, but he was nearly 18 and doesn’t crack the Bundesliga’s Top 10.)
1 – Youssoufa #Moukoko scores his 1st @Bundesliga_EN goal. At the age of 16y 28d, he becomes the youngest goal scorer in Bundesliga history. Historic. #FCUBVB pic.twitter.com/YTqzMgo8EC
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) December 18, 2020
Because ESPN hates providing replays for some reason, here are some other angles of Moukoko becoming the youngest Bundesliga goal scorer (and that lovely pass from Guerreiro).
Moukoko had a couple chances to score a a second but couldn’t bag a brace. But you can be sure this is just the first of many for Dortmund’s super-talented youngster.
Unfortunately for Dortmund, Union scored in the 78th minute to secure a 2-1 victory. BVB has failed to win four of its last five Bundesliga matches.
