Nigerian wonderkid Karim Adeyemi broke a Champions League record for Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday, when he netted in their 3-1 victory at Lokomotiv Moscow.
Adeyemi added Salzburg’s third in the 81st minute away at the RZD Arena, finally killing off the contest after Anton Miranchuk had pulled one back for Lokomotiv two minutes beforehand following a first-half double from the visitors’ Mergim Berisha.
In finding the net, Adeyemi becomes—at the age of 18 years and 318 days—the youngest player ever to score in the Champions League for RB Salzburg.
His goal capped off an excellent outing for the Austrian champions, as they finally ended a run of five UCL games without a victory—losing four and drawing one match during that spell.
Surprisingly, their goalscoring has been impressive even if they haven’t been able to pick up victories, with only Bayern Munich scoring more goals per game across the last two UCL campaigns out of the clubs to feature in both editions of the tournament.
While the impressive Berisha will hog the headlines, the goal was a landmark moment for Adeyemi who is continuing to rebuild his career after leaving Bayern Munich amidst a cloud after disciplinary issues overshadowed his immense potential.
He was an Austrian champion with the club last season, and has one league goal in six T-Mobile Bundesliga outings so far this season.
The youngster, who was born in Munich, has represented Germany up to U-17 level, but is yet to progress further up the national-team ranks.
He’s eligible for Nigeria through his father, but could also turn out for Romania—currently ranked 37th in the world—via his mother.
Despite the victory—ending a run of three consecutive UCL defeats—Salzburg are up against it as they look to qualify for the knockout stages after being drawn into Group A alongside Bayern and Atletico Madrid.
The two heavyweights are currently in place to reach the Last 16—on 13 and six points respectively—but Salzburg could leapfrop Atleti into second if they defeat them in Austria in a winner-takes-all showdown in gameweek six on December 9.
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