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The Champions League is the biggest platform in Europe to announce one's arrival on the grand stage of football. All eyes are on the players competing for Europe's most prestigious silverware. There are no better nights to grab headlines on. Many youngsters dream of starting on the best possible note in the Champions League, which inevitably charts the route of their career progression.
Many players enjoy domestic success in various European top-flights but find it difficult to emmulate the same form in the Champions League. However, many clubs are blessed with various generational talents who show maturity beyond their age.
Champions League is a litmus test for many top goalscorers
They don't need too much time to acclimatize to the big stage before they begin asserting their presence. Given the skewed nature of fame in football, players who put the ball in the back of the net usually get quicker recognition than those who prevent it.
On that note, here are five of the youngest players to have scored a hat-trick in the Champions League:
#5 Yakubu Aiyegbeni - 19 Years, 306 Days
This is a great example of what we mentioned earlier about how Champions League success can chart the route to one's career progression. Yakubu Aiyegbeni is not only the fifth youngest player to score a Champions League hat-trick, he was also the first African to achieve this special feat.
While doing so, he set the record of being the only African player to score a hat-trick on his Champions League debut. We are still waiting for the next boy wonder from Africa to give him company on this rare achievement.
Yakubu scored these three goals in a group stage match while playing for Israeli side Maccabi Haifa against Olympiacos in 2002. The first of which was a penalty and the other two being right footed strikes. He ended the 2002-03 Champions League season with seven goals from eight games.
His performances earned him an initial loan move to the then Premier League side Portsmouth, which eventually became permanent a year later. He played for the likes of Everton, Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers in the English top-flight.
#4 Erling Haaland - 19 Years, 58 Days
He came, he saw, he conquered and he's so young that he's going to dominate opponents for a long, long time. Erling Haaland's hat-trick was only a brief teaser of what was soon going to become a phenomenon. The Norwegian scored a hat-trick in the Champions League for his former club RB Salzburg against Belgian side Genk in 2019.
Further into the competition, Haaland proved his attacking prowess against the likes of Napoli and Liverpool and scoring goals against big opposition removed any doubts about his credentials. The striker holds the record for reaching the 20-goal mark in the Champions League faster than any player and currently has 25 goals in 24 appearances.
Borussia Dortmund availed Haaland's services for a cheap €20 million but it only took him a few games with the German club to prove he was made for greatness. In 28 games, the forward made an astonishing 35 goal contributions of which 27 he scored himself. When that €75 million release clause kicks in next year, most big teams will be eager to avail the services of the prolific hitman.
#3 Wayne Rooney - 18 Years, 339 Days
Talk about teenagers shining on the Champions League stage and thinking of leaving Wayne Rooney out of it? No chance. The Manchester United legend is one of the most complete centre-forwards that English football has ever produced hands down. If he was scoring goals, which is essentially what a centre-forward must do, he'd have enough recognition, but Rooney upped the ante.
He was brilliant in his link-up play, extremely aware and ahead of his opponents and used this quality to set up his teammates. Rooney joined Manchester United in 2004 as one of English football's hottest properties and from the get go he played like he'd been born to play for the Red Devils.
Rooney announced his arrival on the big stage of the Champions League with a hat-trick on debut in a 6-2 thrashing of Turkish side Fenerbahce. It was a glorious hat-trick that began with a left-footed finish for his first goal at Old Trafford.
His second was a sweetly struck finish from outside the penalty box with his right foot. He finally completed his hat-trick by scoring an accurate free-kick in the second half. None of those goals had any chance of being saved. During his illustrious playing career, Rooney won the Champions League once with Man United in 2007-08.
#2 Rodrygo - 18 Years, 301 Days
It has been quite evident for the past two years that Real Madrid are preparing a star team for their future. Among the few names who could be regular harbringers of joy to Real Madrid fans in the future is the young Rodrygo Goes.
The Brazilian joined Los Blancos from Santos for a price tag of €45 million. To their credit, Real have not put pressure on their youngsters to perform on the big level. Part of being a Real Madrid player is to have the capability to perform in the Champions League, unfazed by the fear of mighty opposition.
Rodrygo proved to be the player that Madrid wished him to be and in only his second appearance in the Champions League scored a hat-trick against Galatasaray.
In doing so, the Brazilian wonderkid became the youngest ever to score a perfect hat-trick (left foot, right foot, header) in the Champions League. Simultaneously he also overtook PSG player Marquinhos as the youngest Brazilian to score in the Champions League. These Brazilians, I tell you!
#1 Raúl - 18 years, 114 Days
Rodrygo isn't the only teenage sensation to have proved his worth early in a Real Madrid shirt in the Champions League. Raul is our youngest ever scorer of a hat-trick in the Champions League, a record still waiting to be beaten after nearly 26 years. In what was only his third appearance in the competition, Raul was on the receiving end of all the love at the Bernabeu.
He achieved this feat in the Champions League during Hungarian side Ferencvaros' 6-1 demolition. That hat-trick very much defined the striker that Raul was. He was cunning in terms of the spaces he occupied in open play and the way he drifted into empty pockets in set-pieces. Something he did throughout his career effortlessly and without being stopped.
For a 18-year-old Real Madrid player in 1995, Raul hardly overexaggerated after scoring the hat-trick. It was as if to indicate this is only the beginning and you better get used to this. Raul won the Champions League with Real three times on alternate occasions between 1997 and 2002.
