Lamine Yamal bagged his first-ever World Cup goal against Saudi Arabia, making him one of the youngest scorers in the competition’s history.
Spain were the clear favourites before kick-off, but will have gone into it knowing they couldn’t take a result for granted, following their shock draw to Cape Verde in the first round.
Saudi Arabia are also no strangers to springing a surprise, with perhaps one of their famous results seeing them defeat eventual tournament winners Argentina in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
Is Lamine Yamal the World Cup’s youngest-ever goalscorer?
Yamal made his first start of the competition, and looked lively from the off with Saudi setting up with a back five to try and negate La Roja’s attacking threat.
The teenage sensation drew the first blood of the contest, needing around 10 minutes for his first World Cup goal, tapping in Mikel Oyarzabal’s driven cross at the back stick.
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Yamal was 18 years and 343 days old when he netted the opener against the Green Falcons, and while that does put him in the top ten – there have been younger scorers.
The youngster’s team-mate for both club and country, Gavi, actually sits higher on the list, having scored his first World Cup goal aged just 18 years and 110 days, against Costa Rica in Qatar, which made him the third youngest.
It is, of course, Pele who sits at the top of this list, netting for the first time at the World Cup at just 17 years and 239 days, by some distance the youngest, and a record that may never be beaten.
That fabled first strike came against Wales, in the 1958 edition held in Sweden, which the Selecao went on to win, making Pele the youngest-ever World Cup winner in the process.
Yamal’s goal against Saudi Arabia slots him in at 7th on the all-time list, fittingly just ahead of Lionel Messi, whose no.10 shirt the Spanish prodigy has taken at Barca.
Lamine Yamal scores Spain's first goal against Saudi Arabia after just 10 minutes!🤩 pic.twitter.com/VJ8WvVmXRWJune 21, 2026
Aside from Pele and Gavi, only Manuel Rosas, Michael Owen, Nicolae Kovacs and Dmitri Sychev have netted younger than Yamal.
It puts him ahead of some top names, including the likes of Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe.
Yamal netted his first World Cup goal in Atlanta, but it’s unlikely to be his last.
