😮 Records galore: this World Cup youngster is one to watch | OneFootball

😮 Records galore: this World Cup youngster is one to watch | OneFootball

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OneFootball

·14 June 2026

😮 Records galore: this World Cup youngster is one to watch

Article image:😮 Records galore: this World Cup youngster is one to watch

He paved the way for Australia’s opening World Cup win.

The clock showed the 27th minute when, during a swift counterattack, Nestory Irankunda brilliantly knocked the ball past his Turkish opponent before slotting it into the net.


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After that moment at the latest, he should have caught all of our attention. With that goal, he not only set his team on course for a 2–0 win, but also casually broke a record. At 20 years and 4 months old, he is now Australia’s youngest-ever World Cup goalscorer.

Irankunda himself will probably be less surprised by that, since it is far from the first historic milestone the youngster has reached.

In Australia’s A-League, for example, he is the teenager with the most goals (9 before his move to Bayern II), the youngest player to reach 50 appearances in the league—he was just 18 at the time—and he also claimed the record as Australia’s youngest hat-trick scorer, likewise shortly after turning 18.

So he is quite clearly a World Cup youngster we should have on our radar—and Irankunda proved exactly that today in his country’s very first World Cup match. We’re excited to see what else is still to come from him.

At club level, the attacking gem is currently playing for English second-tier side Watford FC. There, too, it feels almost certain that he will not remain in the second division for much longer.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.


📸 Stu Forster - 2026 Getty Images

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