It's no secret that people can emerge as star players at a very young age. Sport is a primary example of these instances. However, it can be seen in all facets of life. Such an example would be school. Someone's intelligence might mean that they require to skip a grade/s to avoid boredom.
When it comes to sport, these young players will be gven a chance. Some take that opportunity with both hands and display their ability and gain plaudits for their performances. This performance can jumpstart their career and reaching the highest levels of achievements.
Pele is a Brazillian hero and icon in the world of football. He was stocky; powerful and blessed with razor-like reflexes. He leapt to fame as a 17 year-old during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. He didn't start the tournament but his goal in the quarter-final beat Wales.
He got three more against France in the semi-final before scoring twice in the final against the hosts. One came after juggling the ball beyond two defenders in the 5-2 win. To cap it off, at the final whistle in the rain, he cried like, well, a 17 year-old.
Twelve years later, he scored Brazil's opening goal en route to a 4-1 win over Italy in the final in Mexico. Pele scored 1283 first-class goals, 77 of them in 92 internationals. The greatest goalscorer of them all.
Boris Becker is often credited as the pioneer of power tennis with his fast serve and all-court game. Back in his heydays, Boris Becker was a star tennis player. It was the precocious German's victory at Wimbledon in 1985 which set him on the path to a place among the tennis greats. At 17 years, 227 days, bouncing Boris, who was unseeded and largely unknown, toppled eighth-seeded South African, Kevin Curren, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-4.
He won it twice more, beating Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg in 1986 and 1989 and lost four finals all the while becoming a Wimbledon crowd favourite.
In the days when Becker and compatriot German, Steffi Graf, bestrode the courts, one of England's tabloids tended to refer to them as "jackbooting" their way through Wimbledon. Becker is still the youngest men's champion in the most famous grasscourt tournament's history.
In terms of Grand Slams; he won 2 Australian Opens (1991 & 1996) and a singular U.S. Open in 1989. He never won a Roland Garros tournament. He was a semi-finalist on three occassions (1987; 1989 &1991).
'Iron Mike' Tyson was just 20 years, 4 months and 22 days when he dispatched Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas in November 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion. It gave the menacing Tyson a 28-0 win-loss record as a pro. His first 19 bouts were won by knockout, 12 in the first round. He was rarely forced into a sweat in those days.
The Berbick demolition - a TKO in the second round - gave him the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in one or two blows. It all started to go wrong when he was toppled by James "Buster" Douglas in Tokyo in 1990, his 38th fight, and first loss.
Despite the shocking loss, Tyson has said that losing to Douglas was the greatest moment of his career, "I needed that fight to make me a better person and fighter. I have a broader perspective of myself and boxing."
After the loss, Tyson recovered with first-round knockouts of Henry Tillman[72] and Alex Stewart[73] in his next two fights. Tyson's victory over Tillman, the 1984 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist, enabled Tyson to avenge his amateur losses at Tillman's hands. These bouts set up an elimination match for another shot at the undisputed world heavyweight championship, which Evander Holyfield had taken from Douglas in his first defense of the title.
Sachin Tendulkar can be best described as a cricketing prodigy. Don Bradman is always going to be known as cricket's greatest batsman but Sachin Tendulkar is the next best thing.
"The Little Master" from Mumbai made his Test debut at 16 against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989. He was clattered in the mouth by fearsome quick Waqar Younis but battled on in a blood-soaked shirt to 15. His first Test century arrived a year later and he hasn't looked back.
Tendulkar scored 51 Test hundreds and 49 in ODI's. He scored 15,921 Test runs at an average of 53.78 and18,426 at 45.16 in ODI's. He retired in 2013, having played exactly 200 Tests and 463 ODI's.
At 15, Janet Evans broke world records over 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle in 1987. A year later, she won three golds at the Seoul Olympics of 1988. Her 400m world mark lasted 18 years; her 1500m time held off the world's best for 19 years. Her 8min 16.22s 800m record of August 1989 survived four Olympics.
Tiger Woods won the first of his 14 majors, the Masters in 1997, by a whopping 12 strokes. He was then 21 and shook forever the notion that grand slam tournaments can only be won by men of more advanced years. A few years earlier, Seve Ballesteros was another to put that idea to bed, winning the British Open - or The Open, as the Brits know it - in 1979 at 22.
Woods would then blitz the U.S. Open field three years later by 15 strokes.
Up until 2013, Kylian Mbappé was a relatively unknown footballer. In that year, at the age of 14, Mbappé joined the youth academy of Monaco, signing a three-year contract. The club had beaten competition from Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane, who was "very involved" in efforts to sign him.
In October 2015, Mbappé was brought in by Leonardo Jardim to be a mainstay in Monaco's reserve team but his level of skill and maturity prompted his promotion to the main squad after just three weeks. He made his first team debut two months later, on 2 December 2015, in a 1–1 Ligue 1 home draw against Caen, replacing Fábio Coentrão after 88 minutes. Mbappé therefore became Monaco's youngest-ever first-team player, aged 16 years and 347 days, breaking the previous record set by Thierry Henry in 1994.
His performances sparked the interest of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). On 31 August 2017, PSG announced the signing of Mbappé from Monaco on loan with a mandatory purchase option of €180 million. According to PSG's assistant sporting director, Luis Ferrer, the shift in Mbappé's decision to join the club was partly thanks to a "convincing" speech given by manager, Unai Emery, at the Mbappés' home over the summer.
The €180 million fee made Mbappé the most expensive teenager ever and the second-most-expensive player ever (behind teammate Neymar), and broke the record for the largest transfer within a domestic league. He was handed the number 29 shirt upon arrival in the French capital.
Since then, he's won the World Cup; became the French national captain and as of this past Tuesday (16 July), he is a Real Madrid player.
Leny Yoro debuted with Lille's reserve team in 2022 and quickly signed his first professional contract with the club on 10 January 2022.
For his second whole season as professional, Yoro became a full-time starter as a right centre-back and played 32 matches out of 34 Ligue 1 fixtures. He was the second most used French championship player with a total of 3690 minutes in all competitions at only 18 years old.
According to studies published in October 2023, Leny Yoro is the second defender to win the most duels among all the players playing in Europe this season, across all age groups with 89% of defensive duels won. Yoro was also the best player under 23 in defensive ground duels won. Alongside Virgil van Dijk, he was the only defender across all European leagues to be both a top 10% player in defensive duel success rate and top 10% in aerial duel success rate. As of March 2024, Yoro was also one of the Ligue 1 best passing players with a total of 1537 passes made – the seventh in the league across all positions – and a completion rate of 92.3%.
At the end of the season, Yoro was nominated for the 2023–24 Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and elected in the Team of the Year. Widely regarded as one of the best young prospects and a future world class great defender, he stated after the UNFP awards ceremony: "It’s a bit of a childhood dream that has come true. It ends a awesome season that we had with the supporters, the staff and the team which has been incredible. [...] It’s an honour to have so much attention.
When you're a footballer, you have to expect it a little. We know that our performances are examined. Afterwards, I play my football. If there are people watching, it's honestly positive for me and it doesn't impact me on the pitch in any way. I play like I've always played, no matter who is watching me or will watch me."
As of today, he has signed a 5 + 1 year contract for Manchester United for an intial €50 million plus an additional €12 million in add-ons.
There's a word of caution. Despite reaching the highs so early in their careers, athletes must be careful with their personal choices. Their fame won't translate into a coat of invisibility. They will be in danger if they do anything against the law. Such examples would be three of the names I mentioned above: Boris Becker; Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods.
Every person is equal and those who reach the highs at a very young age aren't bulletproof.