Rico Lewis enjoyed his first start for Manchester City (Picture: Getty Images)
Manchester City’s Rico Lewis became the youngest player in Champions League history to score on his first start in the competition, when he struck against Sevilla on Wednesday night.
The 17-year-old (17 years, 346 days to be precise) was making his first start for Pep Guardiola’s side in any competition, although he has come off the bench three times in the Premier League and once before in Europe.
The teenager was playing at right-back, but he got forward to score a superb equaliser on 52 minutes, with City going on to win the game 3-1 thanks to strikes from Julian Alvarez and Riyad Mahrez.
Lewis broke a record held by Karim Benzema who scored on his first start in the Champions League for Lyon against Rosenborg way back in 2005 when he was 17 years and 352 days.
The full-back also became Man City’s youngest ever Champions League goal-scorer as well.
Fellow City defender Ruben Dias has been very impressed with his young teammate and expects big things from him in the future.
‘Definitely he’s an enormous talent, he’s been with us for a long time now,’ Dias told BT Sport.
‘I think for him to get the opportunity to play a full game and to score. You can see his quality, brilliant things ahead for him, but he has to keep working.’
Lewis has already come on in the Premier League this season in wins over Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Southampton and will hope to get more opportunities in the league over the rest of the campaign.
On his young prospect, Guardiola told BT Sport: ‘What a goal. He’s a fantastic player, so intelligent, so clever, he understands everything. He made a fantastic goal and played really good.’
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‘He’s an enormous talent.’
