Endrick matches Pele record with Brazil goalscoring feat

Endrick wrote the headlines during the March international break thanks to his first two senior goals for Brazil, one against England and the other against Spain.

The 17-year-old became the youngest ever player to score a senior goal, club or international, at Wembley Stadium. His strike against Spain was poignantly his first at the Santiago Bernabeu, which will become his home in July when he is allowed to link up with new club Real Madrid.

Given his age, Endrick is quickly drawing comparisons with an all-time great in Pele, who at 17 announced himself with six goals as Brazil won their maiden World Cup in 1958.

But there is greater basis for those comparisons now, with Endrick's goals this past week matching a record that only the late Pele holds in the history of the Selecao. That is because the pair are the only Brazil players to score in successive senior international appearances before the age of 18.

Pele put two such runs together in his Brazil career, scoring in back-to-back games against Argentina in July 1957 when he was just 16. He then found the net again in his third international appearance, against Paraguay, the following May in preparation for the World Cup.

At that World Cup, while still 17, Pele scored in successive games against Wales (quarter-final), France (semi-final) and Sweden (final) – six in total over those three matches. By the time he scored his next Brazil goal in March 1959 at the Copa America, Pele had turned 18.

If Endrick is to match Pele by scoring in three consecutive senior international games before his 18th birthday, he will have the chance if he takes to the pitch against Mexico in a Copa America warm-up in early June. Brazil then face the United States in another friendly four days later. It's unlikely that the teen prodigy, who has already made such an impact, won't play in either game.

Other great Brazilian goalscorers didn't do so much quite so young.

Neymar is Brazil's all-time record scorer now after surpassing Pele's longstanding record last year. He even scored on his debut, but the former Santos talent was already 18 at the time. He didn't find the net in back-to-back internationals until late 2011, by which time he was nearly 20.

When Endrick was initially called up to the senior Brazil squad in November 2023, he was the youngest to get that honour since Ronaldo in 1994. The legendary 'number nine' netted on his first international start, but his next Brazil goal was more than a year later. Ronaldo's first back-to-back goalscoring appearances were across 1995 and 1996, actually ten months apart, when he was 19.

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