Born on November 2nd, 2012 in Barcelona, Thiago Messi’s imminent arrival was first announced by his father during a match between Argentina and Ecuador. Messi scored a goal and celebrated by placing the ball under his shirt, later confirming that his partner, Antonella Roccuzzo, was pregnant with their first child.
Generation Z has officially landed in the UEFA Champions League, and Moise Kean displayed an attention span lasting much longer than a few seconds during his six minutes on the pitch.
The 16-year-old came out sans a mobile device, belying his status as a young consumer and digital native. While some might claim that, in accordance with the desires of his fellow post-millennials, Kean’s debut was just a bit of instant gratification following his Serie A debut on Saturday, the forward is actually a pretty special and unique individual, just like everyone else in the iGeneration.
Manchester United, it's fair to say, has not had the greatest season so far. Jose Mourinho's men currently reside in the foggy depths of sixth place in the Premier League table. To put that in perspective, they're even with Everton and three points above Watford.
To make matters worse, there has been a litany of issues for United in the past few weeks. A frustrating loss to Fenerbache in midweek has left United in third in their Europa League group and Mourinho's squad is facing a mini injury crisis.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, an 18-year-old American center back, made his second appearance for Tottenham Tuesday. It did not go well. His debut came in the EFL Cup against Gillingham and he played well in a win. Tuesday, though, the likes of Gillingham were nowhere to be seen. Tottenham played Liverpool.
Mauricio Pochettino continued the time-honored tradition of playing his second-string in the EFL Cup because who cares it's the EFL Cup, so Carter-Vickers got the nod.
Liverpool also trotted out a fairly inexperienced side except for, um, the strikers.
Dubbed the "Teenage Terminator", 19-year-old Renato Sanches is a savage. The youngest player to ever win the European Championships and the Euro 2016 Young Player of the Tournament, Sanches’ 2015-16 began with the Benfica B squad but ended with a transfer to Bayern Munich that could end up costing the Bavarian side as much as €80 million.
Sanches added another accolade to his growing trophy cabinet on Monday, winning the 2016 Golden Boy award ahead of Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Munich teammate Kingsley Coman.
Just a few days ago Celtic’s Karamoko Dembele was merely the club’s “other Dembele”. Even when he made his debut for the Hoops’ U-20s against Hearts last Wednesday - as a substitute in the 81st minute - he was still second fiddle to first-teamer Moussa Dembele, the recent scorer of a spectacular brace against Manchester City in Champions League play.
Last week, Moussa Dembele made headlines with his performance against Manchester City in the Champions League, but this week, it's Celtic’s 'other Dembele', 13-year-old Karamoko, in the spotlight. Though he could easily be mistaken for a ball boy with his shorts nearly covering his legs, the teenaged Karamoko Dembele replaced 16-year-old Jack Aitchison in the 81st minute of Celtic’s U-20 match with Hearts to make his Celtic debut at that age level.
The accolades for 15-year-old Vancouver Whitecaps forward/winger Alphonso Davies continue to stack up. The Liberian-born Davies, who has represented Canada at the under-20 level, became the youngest player to score a goal in USL history on May 15, 2016. In July, he became the third youngest player of all-time to sign an MLS contract. He’s appeared in eight matches for Vancouver this season, including two starts.
The fact that soccer is a way of life in many if not all countries in the world is no mystery.
In some places, families bet their savings and livelihoods on the skills of a young Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, hoping that their son will be the next big thing in the ever-changing environment that is the soccer world.
Most of the time, these bets don’t pay off and many times, especially in countries where soccer is put ahead of school, they even backfire. Nevertheless, there are a few seeds that grow and eventually turn into amazing stories.