KENDRY PAEZ BREAKS NEW RECORD
Kendry Páez, “the South American Lamine Yamal”
Parallel to Lamine Yamal in Europe, a very young talent of the similar age has emerged in the South American football that started to break records at the level of national team.
His name is Kendry Páez. In the September World Cup qualifier for Ecuador vs Uruguay (2-1), he became the youngest ever (16 years 131 days) player to provide an assist in the history of South American qualification tournaments.
In October, he went further and became, at the age of 16 years 161 days, also the youngest goal-scorer in these tournaments. He found the net in away qualifier vs Bolivia helping his team to win 2-1.
Remarkably, Páez beat the former record by almost 1.5 years! It belonged to Gustavo Neffa (Paraguay) who netted on 24 September 1989 at 17 years 325 days vs Ecuador.
Before Neffa, the record holder was Eladio Benítez (Uruguay), with a goal vs Paraguay on 28 July 1957 at 18 years 154 days.
So, each time more than 30 years are needed for a new young record breaker to get appeared.
In the global ranking of youngest scorer in the history of World Cup qualifying tournaments, Kendry Páez takes now the 2nd position, occupying the podium along with two African players.
| YOUNGEST GOAL | SCORERS | IN | WORLD CUP | QUALIFICATION | |
| Player | Country | Age | Date | Game | |
| 1 | Ebrima Ebou Sillah | Gambia | 16-050 | 01/06/1996 | Liberia 2-1 |
| 2 | Kendry Páez | Ecuador | 16-161 | 13/10/2023 | Bolivia 2-1 |
| 3 | Mamadou Zongo | Burkina Faso | 16-180 | 06/04/1997 | Kenya 3-4 |