Abdalla scores at 16 and sets an Ajax European record
Remember this name: Mohamed Abdalla. The forward, at just 16 years and 9 months, came on in the closing minutes against Vojvodina and needed only three touches of the ball to find the net. He sealed the 4-1 rout away from home, in the first leg of the second qualifying round of the Conference League.
The introduction and the goal
Abdalla replaced Belgian Mika Godts in the 90th minute, when the result already seemed settled. Before him, Davy Klaassen, Steven Berghuis and Oscar Gloukh had already built the lead on Serbian soil. It fell to the boy to stamp the scoreline and, in the process, enter the club’s record books.
With the goal, he became the third-youngest to score for Ajax’s first team, behind only Ryan Gravenberch (16 years and 4 months) and Naci Ünüvar (16 years and 7 months). But there is a detail neither of them achieved: Abdalla is now the youngest scorer in history in European matches wearing the shirt of the Amsterdam club.
From Sudan to Eindhoven, and from PSV to Ajax
Born in Eindhoven, of Sudanese descent, the boy spent a year in PSV’s academy before switching clubs in 2014. The initial choice, incidentally, had simple logic: proximity to home. He recalled that he had faced Ajax with FC Eindhoven and stood out, that he had invitations from both PSV and Ajax, and that at the time he chose PSV because it was close to home.
Abdalla’s story, however, is not only his own. His younger brothers, Wail and Moeijed, also play in Ajax’s youth categories, and the trio grew up playing ball on a pitch three minutes from home. He remembered playing there after school and at weekends whenever possible, and that for a while he played against his brothers, though it became harder. To balance the household duels, they even created homemade rules: only the left foot allowed, no shooting hard.
A family dream and what lies ahead
The brothers said their dream is for the three of them to play in the first team, a statement that neatly sums up the mood of collective betting behind the boy. Ajax, historically, have a keen nose for revealing precocious talents and fast-tracking them to the first team – just ask Gravenberch, now at Liverpool.
It remains to be seen whether Abdalla will string together sequences in the fine print of recent European football’s history, but he is already circulating as a prospect to be watched closely.
