Axel Kei made history on Friday night in the USL Championship, the second tier of the United States. The thirteen-year-old (!) striker made his debut as a substitute for the Real Monarchs from Utah in the game against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. He became the youngest professional athlete ever in an American sport.
Kei made his entrance after an hour as a replacement for American international Bobby Wood, who is more than twice his age. The very young substitute, exactly 13 years, 9 months and 9 days old at the time of his debut, had the chance to score the only goal of the game five minutes before the end. However, a Colorado Springs defender put a stop to that, leaving it at 0-0 in Herriman, Utah.
Kei was born in Ivory Coast, but his family moved to California when he was young and now plays in the youth ranks of Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake; Real Monarchs is the reserve team of that club. He was called up to a United States youth training camp in February 2019. In the summer he helped his team as top scorer in the MLS Next Cup for teams under 15 years. Despite his age, Kei is already 1.85 meters tall.
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