LONDON — Myles Lewis-Skelly made history on Friday by becoming the youngest player to score on his senior debut for England when he found the back of the net in the Three Lions’ victory over Albania at Wembley Stadium.
The 18-year-old was handed his first appearance for the national team by Thomas Tuchel, who was also taking charge of his first game as England manager, following his impressive displays for Arsenal.
Lewis-Skelly had Jude Bellingham to thank for his moment of history in the 20th minute. The Real Madrid midfielder found the full-back’s run with a perfectly weighted through ball, which the teenager expertly finished by rolling the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha.
“I’m lost for words,” Lewis-Skelly told ITV. “I am so grateful for the manager to put trust in me. I am so happy.
“The fans made me feel at home so thank you to them.”
The goal saw Lewis-Skelly (18 years and 176 days) surpass Marcus Rashford‘s previous record (18 years and 209 days), which was set in a 2-1 victory over Australia in 2016.
“He was amazing. In camp [he is] full of confidence and very, very full of humour and such an open and mature character,” Tuchel said in his post-match news conference. “You see everything, what you see on the pitch, you see off the pitch. So he was straight away a part of the group, very impressive.
“He does it with a natural confidence and this is how he plays football. It’s a great performance. He’s full of courage, full of quality and even more so that he could be with his little run behind the line, be decisive and open this game for us even better was amazing.”
Lewis-Skelly only made his first Premier League start in December but his rapid progress has caught the eye of Tuchel.
“He’s a fantastic football player,” Tuchel added. “If you see him in the possession games in training, the level of first touches, the quality of first touches, the quality of the body movement, how he opens up his body and where he plays the passes … A very high understanding of the game comes very natural to him.
“So I think he’s very versatile. He can do I think a lot of things. We tried to play a bit more conventional today because it’s easier to learn. We have of course like everyone else, many players from many different clubs and he did very well. He can adapt because he understands very quickly.”
England won the World Cup qualifying Group K opener 2-0, with Harry Kane scoring the home side’s second goal in the 77th minute.
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.
