Skip to content

LEAGUES News

Monaco cruises to victory as 16-year-old Pellegri makes history

VALERY HACHE / AFP / Getty

Monaco - Defending champions Monaco eased to a 4-0 home win over Dijon in French Ligue 1 on Friday as 16-year-old Pietro Pellegri carved out a little piece of history for himself.

Monaco were 1-0 up at the interval thanks to a Keita Balde goal after 13 minutes before Fabinho, with a 69th-minute penalty, Rony Lopes in the 87th minute and an injury-time strike from Polish international Kamil Glik sealing the team's 17th win of the season.

The win took second-placed Monaco to nine points behind Paris Saint-Germain who can restore their 12-point advantage at home to Strasbourg on Saturday.

Despite the victory, it was not all plain sailing for Monaco after they lost striker Stevan Jovetic to a muscle injury in the pre-match warm-up which placed more pressure on Balde who was returning from suspension.

Meanwhile, Pellegri, at 16 years, 10 months and 30 days, became the youngest player to appear for Monaco when he came on as an 88th minute substitute.

Pellegri replaced Balde and beat the previous record held by Kylian Mbappe who was 16 years, 11 months and 13 days old when he made his debut for the club in December 2015.

The young Italian arrived at Monaco from Genoa during the transfer window where he had also been the youngest player to feature in Serie A and the first player born in the 21st century to play in the Italian championship.

RELATED NEWS

LUKA DRILLS ANOTHER BIG THREE 🗣️
Luka hits clutch step-back trey in Harden's face to clinch Game 2 😤
This goal from Forsberg was pretty Filthy... 😮‍💨 #StanleyC...
Filthy Fil goes upstairs in close 🤮
Josh Manson beats the second-period buzzer to push the Avala...
Manson makes no mistake on unlikely breakaway to beat buzzer 💪
Panarin lays a big hit on Oshie 💥 After reviewing it for a...
Panarin lays out Oshie 😳
Byron Buxton hits a rocket to tie it in the 9th!
Buxton belts game-tying HR in 9th before Twins walk off White Sox 🙌