The Top 25 Youngest MLS Players

Also see: Top 25 Oldest MLS Players Top 25 Oldest MLS Debuts EDIT 7/19/2011: This season, Diego Fagundez and Omar Salgado have entered the top 25 overall youngest; DaMarcus Beasley and Gabe Gala drop off. On the regular season list, Salgado and Luis Gil have made it at the expense of Devin Barclay and Amadou Sanyang. EDIT 12/9/2010: Forgot to update Miguel Montano as Seattle's youngest player. EDIT 12/6/2010: A few more things to update after the end of the season. Agudelo/Henry/Linsday all made their league debuts, while Oscar Cordon played his first TFC game and is now at #22 in the overall list. Linsday is no longer in the top 25 regular season list, but he debuted at #25 and for the record was a part of it for a brief period. All this means that Seth Trembly and Quavas Kirk are no longer in the top 25 regular season list, while Jorge Flores is no longer in the overall top 25. EDIT 6/2/2010: Bumping this post due to a huge day of young debuts. First, let's talk about Toronto's final 2010 Canadian Championship game against Vancouver. They'd already clinched the title, so this match was meaningless and gave them an opportunity to play some youngsters. As a result, three academy players saw action for TFC. Defender Doneil Henry (17.12) and Forward Allando Matheson (18.26) started, while midfielder Nicholas Lindsay (17.74) came off the bench. Matheson was a little too old to make the top 25 in all competitions, but Lindsay comes in at #21 and Henry at #13. On a side note, none of those three players are on Toronto's official roster. Apparently, the Canadian Soccer Association allowed the team to use them regardless, which is bizarre. I mean, I would like to see teams able to use academy/reserve players whenever they feel like as in Europe, but I think it's unfair to the other MLS teams to allow this. If an American MLS team wants to use non-roster players in the Open Cup, would that be ok? It's strange to allow non-roster players to play in an official competition like this, even if the outcome is already decided. The other big debut of the night was Real Salt Lake's Luis Gil. The much-hyped prospect got his first official minutes in the Open Cup qualifier at DC, and he became the third youngest player in all competitions at 16.55 years of age. He was born on November 14, 1993, which is only a month before the MLS was officially announced (12/17/93). Gil also becomes the youngest RSL player of all time. He's exactly one day younger than Nik Besagno on his debut in 2005. Three players drop out of the top 25 after today: Devin Barclay, Amadou Sanyang, and Seth Trembly. The last two were 18 years old, which means that the top 25 in all competitions now consists only of players below 18 (Barclay is listed at 18.00, but is actually 17.996). Finally, I'd previously forgotten to change Houston's youngest ever player: Francisco Navas eclipsed Danny Cruz upon making his debut back in April. EDIT 5/11/2010: On April 27th, Juan Agudelo made his NY debut in the Open Cup qualifier against the Union. The academy signing debuts at 13 on the overall list, knocking another academy player off (Cesar Zamora). Neither have played in the regular season yet. Also, we're only a couple more debuts away from making these top 25's all U-18. EDIT 4/25/2010: Jasseh plays in his first regular season match, making it onto both lists (and knocking Brek Shea off). EDIT 4/18/2010: Omar Jasseh of SJ has become the 13th youngest player in all comps after playing in the Open Cup qualifier (Quavas Kirk drops off). He also is the youngest player in Quakes history, previously held by Arturo Alvarez since his debut in 2003. EDIT 3/28/2010: Homegrown signing Andy Najar of DC United started the opener. Born in 1993, he becomes the 10th youngest player in league history. As a result, Tim Ward & Brek Shea fall off the regular season/all comps categories. respectively. EDIT 3/26/2010: Updated for the new season. As it turns out, Bowen didn't debut in MLS in time to make the top 25. However, last year, Amadou Sanyang debuted at #20 on August 1st (knocking off Rodrigo Lopez on the regular season list). In addition, he and Cesar Zamora (at #22) both made the top 25 in overall competitions (knocking off Bowen and Kyle Beckerman). On opening day 2010, the Philadelphia Union had four teens making their MLS debuts. The youngest was Jack McInerney, who easily made the top 25. He's the 13th youngest player in league history, and knocks off Beckerman and Tim Ward in the regular season and overall categories respectively. EDIT 4/8/2009: In yesterday's Open Cup qualifier, Tristan Bowen made his Galaxy debut. He became the first academy player to play for an MLS club, and he also barely made the top 25 in the overall category. He enters at #24 and knocks Rodrigo Lopez off the list. I expect I'll need to update this again shortly once he gets into a regular season game. EDIT 3/29/2009: Last night, Danny Cruz became the Houston Dynamo's youngest ever player. Previously the record was held by Stuart Holden. EDIT 3/24/2009: No new debuts, but I did correct an error. I'd previously listed Craig Capano's age as the same for both lists. I've put up a list of the youngest players for each team as well. EDIT 7/20/2008: Abdus Ibrahim has become the 8th youngest player ever at 16.91, knocking Nino Da Silva (18.27) off the list. With that change, the top 25 is now comprised solely of players making their debut in the Top 25 Youngest MLS Players - REGULAR SEASON ONLY Age Team Year 1 Adu, Freddy 14.84 DC 2004 2 Besagno, Nik 16.55 RSL 2005 3 Quaranta, Santino 16.57 DC 2001 4 Gaven, Eddie 16.64 NY 2003 5 Capano, Craig 16.82 CHI 2002 6 Convey, Bobby 16.83 DC 2000 7 Altidore, Jozy 16.84 NY 2006 8 Ibrahim, Fuad 16.91 TOR 2008 9 Sesay, Israel 17.02 LA 2007 10 Najar, Andy 17.03 DC 2010 11 Johnson, Eddie 17.11 DAL 2001 12 Szetela, Danny 17.17 CLB 2004 13 Gil, Luis 17.36 RSL 2011 14 Gonzalez, Guillermo 17.46 LA 2003 15 Jasseh, Omar 17.48 SJ 2010 16 Henry, Doneil 17.51 TOR 2010 17 Salgado, Omar 17.58 VAN 2011 18 McInerney, Jack 17.63 PHI 2010 19 Bradley, Michael 17.67 NY 2005 20 Mapp, Justin 17.76 DC 2002 21 Alvarez, Arturo 17.81 SJ 2003 22 Beasley, DaMarcus 17.82 CHI 2000 23 Agudelo, Juan 17.88 NY 2010 24 Gala, Gabe 17.92 TOR 2007 25 Flores, Jorge 17.98 CHV 2007 Certainly, Adu's record is one that should never be broken. You can see the history of the youngest player title by clicking the link. Top 25 Youngest MLS Players - ALL COMPETITIONS Age Team Year 1 Adu, Freddy 14.84 DC 2004 2 Fagundez, Diego 16.19 NE 2011 3 Quaranta, Santino 16.47 DC 2001 4 Gil, Luis 16.55 RSL 2010 5 Besagno, Nik 16.55 RSL 2005 6 Gaven, Eddie 16.64 NY 2003 7 Capano, Craig 16.69 CHI 2002 8 Altidore, Jozy 16.79 NY 2006 9 Convey, Bobby 16.83 DC 2000 10 Ibrahim, Fuad 16.91 TOR 2008 11 Sesay, Israel 17.02 LA 2007 12 Najar, Andy 17.03 DC 2010 13 Johnson, Eddie 17.11 DAL 2001 14 Henry, Doneil 17.12 TOR 2010 15 Szetela, Danny 17.17 CLB 2004 16 Agudelo, Juan 17.42 NY 2010 17 Jasseh, Omar 17.45 SJ 2010 18 Gonzalez, Guillermo 17.46 LA 2003 19 Salgado, Omar 17.58 VAN 2011 20 McInerney, Jack 17.63 PHI 2010 21 Bradley, Michael 17.67 NY 2005 22 Alvarez, Arturo 17.71 SJ 2003 23 Lindsay, Nicholas 17.74 TOR 2010 24 Cordon, Oscar 17.75 TOR 2010 25 Mapp, Justin 17.76 DC 2002 Players in red have a different overall debut age compared to their MLS debut age. Youngest Player for Each Team CHI Capano, Craig CHV Flores, Jorge CLB Szetela, Danny COL Trembly, Seth DAL Johnson, Eddie DC Adu, Freddy HOU Navas Cobo, Francisco KC Da Silva, Nino LA Sesay, Israel MIA Beckerman, Kyle NE Fagundez, Diego* NY Gaven, Eddie PHI McInerney, Jack RSL Gil, Luis** SEA Montano, Miguel SJ Jasseh, Omar TB Barclay, Devin TOR Ibrahim, Fuad * Fagundez is the youngest for all competitions. For regular season action, it's Sainey Nyassi. ** Gil is the youngest for all competitions. For regular season action, it's Nik Besagno.