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Already the youngest French goalscorer in the Champions League, Ilenikhena breaks Mbappé’s record

The records for precocity continue to rain down on George Ilenikhena. That of youngest French scorer in the Champions League is already regularly attributed to him after his achievement, with Antwerp against Barça, on December 13, 2023 at the age of 17 years and 119 days. But his French naturalization, he who was born in Nigeria, in Lagos, was not yet recorded. The record could therefore still belong to the PSG midfielder, Warren Zaïre-Emery, against Dortmund, also on December 13, 2023, at 17 years and 280 days.

Ilenikhena’s record of the evening will not suffer any administrative dispute. By scoring this Thursday against Barça (2-1), the former player became the youngest scorer in the history of Monaco in the Champions League at 18 years and 34 days. He thus deposes Kylian Mbappé, who had scored in C1 with ASM at 18 years and 63 days, from one of his many records.

>> Champions League: relive Monaco-Barça (2-1)

Records in Ligue 2

Ray precocious, Ilenikhena does not stop. The former player became the youngest player in Ligue 2 at 16 years and 147 days during his debut with Amiens. Then the youngest scorer in the history of Ligue 2 by scoring with the Picardy club in (1-1) three days after his debut.

Transferred to Antwerp, Ilenikhena became, at 17 years and 74 days, the youngest to score in two consecutive matches in the Belgian championship since a certain Romelu Lukaku in 2010 (at 16 years and 312 days).

“I’m very happy, proud of the team, it’s a great performance, we deserved our victory,” the player said to Canal + after the Monaco victory. “We can go very far, we all work together. It’s perfect, nothing to say! I do everything to score against each team.” But that happens often against Barça.

Original article published on RMC Sport

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