Desire Doue is the real deal.
The Paris Saint-Germain youngster has done it again, dominating the first half of the Champions League final with a goal and assist against Inter Milan.
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The 19-year-old first delightfully set up Achraf Hakimi for a simple tap-in against his old side and then converted from range coming in off the right.
His strike made him just the third teenager to score in the Champions League final after Patrick Kluivert in 1995 (for Ajax v Milan) and Carlos Alberto in 2004 (for Porto v Monaco).
Numerous greats have failed to achieve such a feat, including all-time scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who was 23 in his first Champions League final with Manchester United in 2008.
Meanwhile, his long term rival Lionel Messi was a teenager in his first Champions League win with Barcelona in 2006, but didn’t feature in the 2-1 win over Arsenal.
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Doue is also only the sixth player to both score and assist in a Champions League final, while at 19 years and 362 days, he’s the youngest to do so.
It’s not even the second half yet…
Doue joined the Luis Enrique revolution last summer from talent factory Rennes for £42million.
Also heavily-linked to Bayern Munich, he could well have ended up playing at the Allianz Arena full-time, the venue of this year’s final.
Instead Doue chose to stay in France and has become one of the star players of Luis Enrique’s youth infused team.
That hasn’t always been the case, though, as he started the season as a back-up to Bradley Barcola before displacing his countryman for the second half of the season.
Even with the arrival of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli in January he’s maintained his spot, and responded with 15 goals and 16 assists overall.
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