Ilan the youngest national player; historic day for football

During yesterday's game against Sri Lanka, the Maldivian national football team saw their youngest player ever, Ilan, 16, mark two historic records in Maldivian football.

Ilan is being seen as the highlight of the match during the Maldives versus Sri Lanka game yesterday, where renowned coach Mohamed Shiyaz (Mohan) had substituted him onto the field.

Ilan had been subbed in for Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussain (Feydhoo Ibbe) in the 89th minute. Ilan played wearing the senior team jersey with the number 21. He is currently 16 years, 7 months and 20 days old.

This makes Ilan the youngest ever player to share the field with Maldives' senior football team. With this, Ilan's name has been cemented in Maldivian football history.

This record was held previously by Abdulla Yameen (Yaan), where he played against Singapore's national football team in 2018. Yaan, now the forward for Buru Sports, was 17 years and 85 days at the time.

Prior to that, one of the most famous players ever to have held that record was Mohamed Khaleel (Bodu Jadaa). He had played in the 1984 South Asian Games in Nepal and was 17 years and 145 days at the time.

Sri Lankan commentators had said that Ilan was the youngest player on the field. Not only has Ilan broken the record for being the youngest national player, he has also assisted Ali Fasir (Sentey) in scoring Maldives' third goal against Sri Lanka yesterday.

His assist marks the youngest player to have an assist in the senior national team's goal scoring opportunity.

Ilan had received the ball in the midst of his team and raced into the box to be challenged by a Sri Lankan defender, only to have swiftly passed the ball to Sentey without succumbing to the pressure.

With Sentey's goal, Maldives won the match with a score of 3-0. The other two goals were scored by Naiz Hassan (Dhaadhu) and Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussain (Feydhoo Ibbe).