Millonarios FC Welcomes Young Star as One of Colombia’s Youngest Professional Debuts

Millonarios has one of the youngest players to debut in Colombian and international football – credit Millonarios FC

Millonarios is one of the teams that generated the most expectation for the Liga BetPlay because of the number of reinforcements they hired for the second semester, and their first rival will be Independiente Medellín on Thursday, July 18, at the Atanasio Girardot stadium.

As if that weren’t enough, one of those players in the blue team is among the youngest footballers to debut both in Colombia and internationally, being part of a recognized list that, as of July 17, includes Cavan Sullivan from the Philadelphia Union of MLS, who debuted at 14 years and 293 days.

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On that list appears a player who made his debut in a professional match at just 10 years old, as well as others who only had one match and then did not appear again, as happened in Liga BetPlay with a boy who had few minutes as part of a protest.

On average, a footballer begins their career as a professional between the ages of 16 and 18, to the point that some of them are already stars without reaching adulthood, such is the case of Lamine Yamal, the young star of the Spanish national team and Barcelona who won the Euro 2024.

The Spanish media Mundo Deportivo published on July 18 a list of those athletes who made their appearance in football at a very young age, where Falcao García, a figure of Millonarios, is listed, debuting at 13 years and 112 days in 1999, in the second division of Colombia.

On August 28, 1999, the forward played his first match in Tunja, with Lanceros against Pereira, for the Primera B – credit Dimayor

That match is referenced where the player from Santa Marta played with Lanceros Fair Play against Deportivo Pereira at the La Independencia stadium in Tunja, entering the second half and disputing his first minutes as a professional footballer, a career that brought him much success.

The second place belongs to Mauricio Baldivieso, a young Bolivian who played with Aurora from that country at 12 years and 362 days in 2009, but because his father, Juan Carlos Baldivieso, made him debut and the board of directors disagreed with it, so both left the team.

The youngest player on record in a football match is Erick Marshall, who made history with his appearance in a match for FC Ga’rou, a fourth division team in Liberia, as he was only 10 years old when he stepped onto the field, and the uniform was a bit big on him.

Falcao García’s appearance at such a young age in Colombian football, even though it was in the Primera B, reminded many of other appearances of young footballers, both male and female, but not all of them achieved a long or successful career.

On March 8, 2009, during the Copa Mustang, Independiente Santa Fe debuted Luis Mauricio Alarcón, a boy of 14 years who only had one minute and 38 seconds on the field against Pereira, at El Campín stadium, because the red team’s coach, Hernán Darío Gómez, was not in favor of the rule of including players under 18 years old in the starting lineup.

Mauricio Alarcón is one of the youngest footballers in the history of the FPC to debut as a professional – credit Dimayor

Bolillo told the press at that moment that Alarcón would go on the field “to take the picture with the team and then replace him,” receiving applause from the crowd and with a 2-1 victory for the locals, but since that day nothing more was known about his career.

Another case was none other than Linda Caicedo, who also debuted at 14 years old with América de Cali in the Women’s League 2019, a year in which she also became the champion of the tournament and from that moment on became a star for the Colombian national team and currently plays for Real Madrid.

At 14 years old, Linda Caicedo began her career in professional football with América in 2019 – credit Dimayor