He did better than a certain Warren Zaire-Emery. At 17 years and 119 days old (compared to 280 for the Parisian prodigy), George Ilenikhena scored the first goal of his career in the Champions League this Wednesday evening. For a story of French naturalization not yet recorded, the native of Lagos (Nigeria) who arrived in France at three years old, will be deprived of a record: that of the youngest French scorer in history in the Champions League, therefore left to “WZE “.
But the main thing is elsewhere for this young player trained in Hauts-de-Seine. Having offered the first victory in its history on the big European stage to Antwerp will be more than enough for him. Doing it against FC Barcelona in the 92nd minute even more so.
An aborted transfer to OM
Barely a minute after the Catalan equalizer (2-2, 91st), Ilenikhena found himself after a good pivot play from the height of his 1.85 m, launched in depth alone against Ter Stegen. His sense of purpose did the rest. A flat left foot slipped perfectly into the right net to capsize the Bosuilstadion and make history. And this, regardless if the Belgian club had nothing left to play in this group phase, with 0 points before the last day.
Enough to still make profitable the 6.5 million euros invested by the Antwerp team this summer to snatch it from Amiens. Ilenikhena had shone with the Picard club in the youth categories (24 goals in U19) before coming close to joining OM. At the start of the summer of 2022, he even had the medical examination and saw Jorge Sampaoli, the coach at the time. A transfer ultimately aborted which forced him to stay in Ligue 2 where he took his first steps before leaving for Belgium.
A colossal transfer for a player of his age, who brought 65,000 euros to his training club Antony. Arriving at three years old in France, he did not have a trajectory designed for the highest level. His first attempt in September 2016 in Hauts-de-Seine had not even been “good at all” according to Tom Bouvil, his ex-educator who spoke in our columns. 7 years later, here he is, scoring against FC Barcelona and promising a great future.
