| Intro | Association football player |
| Is |
Athlete Football player Association football player |
| From |
Germany Cameroon |
| Type | Sports |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 20 November 2004, Yaoundé, Cameroon |
| Age: | 15 years |
| Star sign | Scorpio |
Youssoufa Moukoko (born 20 November 2004) is a German-Cameroonian footballer. The striker already played as a 12-year-old in the U17 team of Borussia Dortmund and for the German U16 national team. His sporting achievements, which Moukoko shows as a youth player in football, made him known throughout Europe.
Club career
Moukoko played in the U13 of FC St. Pauli from 2014 to 2016 and scored 23 goals in 13 games as a striker. In July 2016, Moukoko was transferred to Borussia Dortmund’s youth academy. He played as the only 13-year-old in the Under 17 Bundesliga for Dortmund. Moukoko moved up to the U19s for the 2019/20 season at the age of 14, scoring six goals in his first match in the Under 19 Bundesliga in a 9-2 win against Wuppertaler SV. He completed his first UEFA Youth League match on 17 September 2019 against FC Barcelona, becoming the youngest player to be fielded in this competition. In a game against Inter Milan, the striker scored the 1-0 goal on 23 October of the same year, making him the youngest scorer in the Youth League. Since January 2020, Moukoko has also been allowed to train with BVB’s senior team under Lucien Favre. According to the current DFB statutes, a compulsory match in the Bundesliga is possible from the 2021/22 season at the earliest.
International career
Moukoko played for the German U16 national team for the first time on September 11, 2017 in a 3-1 victory over Austria. Two days later, in his second match against the same opponent, he scored both goals for Germany in a 2-1 victory. At that time he was the youngest player in the U16 national team. In order to protect Moukoko from too much media attention, the BVB and DFB decided not to continue using him in selected teams for the time being.
Sponsorship
Moukoko has had an advertising contract worth millions with the sporting goods manufacturer Nike since 2019.
Age controversy
Moukoko, who is called a child prodigy because of his great on-field performance, often has to struggle with age discrimination. The question of whether his age is true or not is a matter of public debate and has been the subject of intense debate in the German sports press. Moukoko’s father repeatedly pointed out the authenticity of his son’s birth certificate in numerous interviews and is proved by official documents.
Family
In the first ten years of his life, Moukoko grew up with his grandparents in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé in an area, which was predominantly Muslim. His father (* 1951), who has lived in Hamburg as a German citizen since the 1990s, brought his son to Germany in the summer of 2014. Youssoufa Moukoko has four siblings. Youssoufa Moukoko’s older brother Borel has been playing since 2019 for Schwarz-Weiß Essen.