The post-Kylian Mbappé era began at Paris Saint-Germain on Friday. In the France captain’s absence, PSG named their youngest-ever line-up in their 4-1 victory over Le Havre AC at the Stade Océane.
The fixture had been seemingly drifting towards a draw after Gauthier Lloris’ equaliser early in the second half cancelled out Lee Kang-in’s early opener. However, Les Parisiens finished with a late flurry, with goals from Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani securing a 4-1 victory for Luis Enrique’s men.
That victory was obtained with the youngest-ever line-up, with the XI aligned by Luis Enrique having an average age of 22 years and 192 days. Warren Zaïre-Emery, who despite having been on the scene for over 18 months at this point, is still only 18, whilst Yoram Zagué and Ibrahim Mbaye were also handed starts. The latter, making his first start for his formative club, became the youngest player to ever start a game for PSG at the age of 16 years, six months and 23 days.
The previous record for the youngest PSG XI dated back to 28th May 1985, when a lineup with an average age of 22 years and 314 days was deployed against Nancy. In the post-Mbappé era, youth will clearly be at the heart of the project at PSG.
