Maksimovic, 19, Breaks Mitrovic's Champions League Record

RB Leipzig were losing away to Como, the bench was on edge, and then the ball found a player once nicknamed Messi at Marakana. In the 58th minute, Andrija Maksimovic beat the home goalkeeper, and with that goal, cosmetic as it was for the final score, wrote his name into a place no Serbian his age had reached before.

Leipzig ultimately lost to Como 4-1, in the opening round of the new Champions League season, played on September 10. A loss is a loss, but the story of the night was not the score, it was who scored it. Maksimovic was born on June 5, 2007, which means he found the net against Como at exactly 19 years, 3 months and 5 days old. That made him the youngest Serbian scorer in Champions League history since the competition adopted its current name in 1992.

It was also his Champions League debut for Leipzig, and he started the match rather than coming off the bench. German and Italian media immediately compared the goal to the kind of moves Lionel Messi produced over his career, a comparison that is nothing new for Maksimovic, it has followed him since his days wearing the Red Star Belgrade shirt.

Who held the record before Maksimovic

The record Maksimovic broke belonged to Aleksandar Mitrovic, who scored his first goal in Europe’s elite club competition at 20 years, 1 month and 19 days old. Behind Mitrovic on that list is Aleksandar Stankovic, whose first goal came at 20 years, 5 months and 17 days, while the list was closed out, until last night, by Sinisa Mihajlovic, who scored his at 20 years, 7 months and 7 days.

The ranking after Como looks like this:

• Andrija Maksimovic, 19 years, 3 months and 5 days
• Aleksandar Mitrovic, 20 years, 1 month and 19 days
• Aleksandar Stankovic, 20 years, 5 months and 17 days
• Sinisa Mihajlovic, 20 years, 7 months and 7 days

The gap between Maksimovic and the previous record holder is not small, almost a full year. It shows how early this forward reached playing time at the highest level, while Mitrovic, Stankovic and Mihajlovic all needed to be into their twenties before their first goal in the competition.

The road to the starting lineup against Como

Maksimovic did not earn his place in Leipzig’s starting eleven overnight. A few days before the Como match, he got about ten minutes in a league game against Werder, and in those ten minutes he set up a goal, teeing up teammate Baku in stoppage time. The coach rewarded him with a starting spot for the opening round of the Champions League, and Maksimovic repaid that trust with a goal in the very first half, or more precisely, in the second part of it.

That is a pattern rarely seen in young players at this stage of their careers, brief minutes that immediately turn into a concrete contribution, and then a bigger role. Leipzig now has a forward who went from a bench role to scoring in the Champions League in the space of a week.

The Messi of Marakana

The nickname has followed him since his days in Red Star Belgrade’s youth academy, where Maksimovic came through the ranks and fans started calling him Messi for his playing style and his dribbling in tight spaces. That nickname now carries new weight, because the goal he scored against Como last night, according to those who watched it, resembled a typical Messi finish, the kind where the forward creates his own space for the shot.

Leipzig left Como empty handed, with three goals conceded too many and a loss in the opening round. But they also left with a player the whole of Europe is now talking about, not just Serbia. For a 19 year old who was a first team player at Red Star Belgrade just a few months ago, this is only the first goal in a competition where careers are built and measured over years. The question now is how soon the Bundesliga and the Champions League will give him a permanent starting spot, instead of the occasional minutes he has received so far.