Bundesliga
The German top flight has always been a hotbed for talented teenagers keen to announce their arrival on the world stage. Many such rookies did like Youssoufa Moukoko, Jamal Musiala and Christian Pulisic so in the best possible way – by getting on the scoresheet.
bundesliga.com takes you through the top 10 youngest goalscorers in the league…
Age: 16 years and 28 days
Moukoko absolutely smashed the record for the youngest scorer in Bundesliga history when he netted only 28 days after his 16th birthday. It came in a losing cause as Borussia Dortmund were beaten 2-1 at Union Berlin on Matchday 13 of 2020/21, but after smashing scoring records at youth level, it was no surprise when the prodigious BVB striker then did the same for the senior side. He ended his first campaign with the first team on three Bundesliga goals – of course making him the youngest to reach that total.
Watch: Moukoko becomes the youngest scorer in Bundesliga history
Age: 17 years and 34 days
Wirtz became the then youngest goalscorer in Bundesliga history when he steered in his first goal for Bayer Leverkusen at the age of 17 years and 34 days on Matchday 30 of the 2020/21 season. A half-time substitute, and making only his fourth Bundesliga appearance having dislodged Kai Havertz as Leverkusen's youngest-ever debutant at the age of 17 years and 16 days, Wirtz curled a memorable goal past Bayern Munich and Germany No.1 Manuel Neuer.
3) Nuri Sahin
Age: 17 years, two months and 21 days
Previous number one Sahin had already created history when he was still 16, as in 2005 he became the youngest player ever in the Bundesliga at the time. The future Turkey international set another benchmark in November the same year, firing home what proved the crucial second goal for Dortmund in their 2-1 victory at Nuremberg. Now at Antalyaspor after a spell at Werder Bremen, Sahin won the league with BVB in 2011 before also lining up for Real Madrid and Liverpool.
4) Mathys Tel
Age: 17 years, four months and 14 days
Tel wrote his name into the Bayern history books when he scored on his first start for the club in the 5-0 DFB Cup win over Viktoria Köln, doing so 126 days after his 17th birthday and knocking Musiala off top spot. He did the same in the Bundesliga on Matchday 6 of 2022/23 when netting against VfB Stuttgart – in fact in the same game as Musiala, meaning both goalscorers that day were teenagers – to again usurp the Germany international in the club standings and go fourth in the all-time Bundesliga chart.
5) Tom Rothe
Age: 17 years, five months and 18 days
Former St. Pauli youngster Rothe was enjoying a solid debut season with the Dortmund U19s when he was parachuted into the senior fold for the 2021/22 Bundesliga Matchday 30 meeting with Wolfsburg. With less than 25 minutes on the clock, the 6'2" left-back flicked in a Julian Brandt corner to pave the way for a resounding 6-1 triumph. In doing so, Rothe became the youngest ever goalscoring debutant in Bundesliga history, and only the third 17-year-old to hit the back of the net on his top-flight bow.
Age: 17 years, six months and 12 days
Draxler grew up watching Schalke from the stands, and he became the youngest player in the club’s history when he made his debut in January 2011. The realisation of childhood dreams continued in April of that year, when he came off the bench to seal a 2-0 win at St. Pauli. The teenager later added to his place in Royal Blue folklore by scoring the opening goal in the 2010/11 DFB Cup final win over Duisburg, and finished his spell at the club with 30 goals in 170 appearances. A FIFA World Cup and Confederations Cup winner with Germany, Draxler left for an 18-month spell at Wolfsburg in 2015 and has since filled up his trophy cabinet while with Paris Saint-Germain.
7) Timo Werner
Age: 17 years, six months and 16 days
Lethal at RB Leipzig, Werner first gave notice of his talent at VfB Stuttgart. Shortly after becoming the youngest player to feature for his hometown club, the striker opened his account in professional football with a headed equaliser in a 1-1 home draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on 22 September 2013. Once the youngest player to reach 50 Bundesliga appearances – a record since beaten by Leverkusen’s Havertz – the 24-year-old has been scoring regularly ever since. Having moved from Stuttgart to Leipzig in 2016, the Germany attacker reached 91 Bundesliga goals before a summer 2020 move to Chelsea. He has since returned to the Red Bull Arena.
Watch: How Timo Werner did his scoring for Leipzig
Age: 17 years, six months and 24 days
Musiala became Bayern's youngest ever player in the Bundesliga at just 17 years and 115 days old when he featured against Freiburg on the penultimate weekend of the 2019/20 season. He followed that by becoming the Bavarian club's all-time youngest goalscorer at the time, smashing the record set by an 18-year-old Roque Santa Cruz, with the eighth goal in an 8-0 demolition of Schalke on the opening day of 2020/21. The half-English, half-German midfielder only joined the club in summer 2019 from Chelsea.
Age: 17 years, six months and 30 days
Pulisic was the trailblazer for the current generation of American talents taking the Bundesliga by storm. The attacker from Hershey in Pennsylvania made his first league appearance for Dortmund in January 2016, and was at the time the youngest American to feature in the German top flight.
That record was bettered by BVB youngster Gio Reyna during the 2019/20 season but Pulisic remains the youngest American to score in a Bundesliga game. The two-time US Soccer Male Athlete of the Year award winner netted the opening goal in a 3-0 victory over Hamburg in April 2017. It was the first of 19 strikes in all competitions for Dortmund before he moved to Chelsea in July 2019.
Watch: Christian Pulisic, made in the Bundesliga
10) Lars Ricken
Age: 17 years, eight months and one day
March 1994 proved an eventful few weeks for Ricken. On the first of the month he made his debut for Dortmund in a UEFA Cup quarter-final tie against Inter Milan, and a week later he appeared in the Bundesliga for the first time. In a month of firsts, three days later the attacking midfielder started – and scored – in a 2-1 win over Duisburg. To prove that was no fluke, he was on target again in the second leg against Inter.
The future Germany international would claim the first of his three league titles Dortmund a year later. Now BVB’s youth coordinator, he scored a breathtaking goal in the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League final as Dortmund became European champions thanks to a 3-1 success against Juventus.