We all love it when a youngster comes through our club's academy, breaks in to the first team and scores.

Of course, we all look in awe when we think that while a young teenager is scoring in the Premier League, we were sitting about in our pants playing computer games at the same age. That's not the point, though. It's always a beautiful moment we want to see more of.

The Premier League has played witness to some incredibly young goalscorers in its time. A few of them are among the biggest names in world football, while most of them you will have completely forgotten about.

Will we ever get younger than the youngest? It would be incredible!

25. Rio Ferdinand - 18 years, 2 months, 25 days

The legendary centre-back scored only 11 goals during his Premier League career but found his way onto the scoresheet quickly in his first full season, notching his first career league goal for West Ham in a 2-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers in February 1997.

Ferdinand slotted another goal several weeks later to bring his season total to two.

Over the span of his 19-year career, the Englishman appeared in 504 matches and earned 189 clean sheets for the Hammers, Leeds United and Manchester United, but only did he eclipse his goal scoring mark from that debut season.

24. Darren Bent - 18 years, 2 months, 18 days

The journeyman forward’s first career goal also served as the match-winner in a 1-0 Ipswich Town victory over Middlesbrough in April 2002.

Bent, who later made 12 appearances for England, would go on to play for nine clubs, including Tottenham, Aston Villa and Derby County, and finished his career in England with 181 career goals.

Bent was 18 years, two months and 18 days old when he scored his first career Premier League goal.

23. Sol Campbell - 18 years, 2 months, 17 days

Campbell appeared in just 22 minutes of football during his debut season in 1992, but still managed to make his way onto the scoresheet for Spurs that season.

Coming on as a 68th minute sub in a December meeting with Chelsea, the English centre-back netted an 88th minute goal to mark the first of his career.

Campbell would go on to score 24 goals over a 20-year career spent with Spurs, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Notts County, but his first – scored at 18 years, two months and 17 days – earns him the distinction of being among the youngest goal scorers in Premier League history.

22. Chris Bart-Williams - 18 years, 2 months, 17 days

The first of this English midfielder’s 30 career goals came for Sheffield Wednesday in September 1992 in a 2-1 defeat to Coventry City.

Bart-Williams spent 12 seasons in English football and appeared in 211 Premier League matches during that time.

His goal in his first full season with Sheffield Wednesday came when he was 18 years, two months and 17 days old.

21. Serge Gnabry - 18 years, 2 months, 14 days

Gnabry registered his first career Premier League goal to help push Arsenal past Swansea City in September 2013. The German winger’s strike remains his only league goal from his time in England.

Now a regular in Bayern Munich’s starting XI, Gnabry still holds a place in Premier League history as one of its youngest scorers of all-time.

20. Jack Wilshere - 18 years, 2 months, 2 days

On loan with Bolton in the spring 2010, Wilshere slotted a 16th minute winner to push the Trotters past West Ham and earned himself a first-ever Premier League goal in the process.

Only seven more league goals have followed for the English midfielder over his 11-year career in the top-flight, his last coming for Arsenal in January 2018.

Wilshere will never set records for goals, but his first – which came at 18 years, two months and two days – leaves him amongst the youngest to register a goal in Premier League history.

19. Gareth Barry - 18 years, 2 months, 1 day

The league-title winner began his career in Birmingham with Aston Villa where he picked up his first career Premier League goal with a 57th-minute strike in a 2-0 over Nottingham Forest on April 24 1999.

It was the first of 53 Barry would score in the league over time spent with Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion.

Well accomplished throughout his career for both club and country, Barry also remains one of the youngest scorers in league history having netted his first goal at 18 years, two months and one day.

18. Michael Branch - 18 years, 1 month, 19 days

Branch’s 17th-minute goal for Everton helped counter goals from Gianfranco Zola and Gianluca Vialli in a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in December 1996.

The English centre-forward scored just once more in his four years playing in the Premier League and spent the remainder of his career in the First Division and League Two.

While his mark on the Premier League was minimal and his memory among most football fans has long faded, Branch still owns the distinction as one of the league’s youngest scorers after registering his first-career goal at 18 years, one month and 19 days.

17. Gareth Bale - 18 years, 1 month, 16 days

The former Premier League Player of the Season scored his first-career Premier League goal with a left-footed strike in the 61st minute of a 3-3 draw between Spurs and Fulham in September 2007.

Bale would go on to score 43 league goals during his six-seasons with Tottenham before departing for Real Madrid.

The Welsh winger still holds a series of honours from his time in England and prominent among them is his place as one of the league’s youngest scorers at 18 years, one month and 16 days.

16. Francis Jeffers - 18 years, 1 month, 2 days

Jeffers’ 57th-minute goal drew Everton level in a 1-1 draw to Wimbledon on Feb. 27 1999.

The goal was the first of 24 the English forward would slot over time spent in the top-flight with the Toffees, Arsenal, Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers.

Jeffers played his final Premier League season in 2006-07 and he remains one of the league’s youngest scorers at 18 years, one month and two days.

15. Alan Smith - 18 years, 17 days

The English midfielder kicked off the scoring for Leeds and picked up his first-ever Premier League goal in a 3-1 win over Liverpool in November 1998.

Smith spent 11 seasons in the Premier League with Leeds, Manchester United and Newcastle United from 1998-2009, scoring 45 league goals and winning league title (2006-07) during that time.

Smith’s first goal – at 18 years, 17 days – still ranks him as one of the youngest scorers in league history.

14. Victor Anichebe - 18 years, 14 days

Making just his second league appearance with Everton on the final day of his debut season in 2005-06, the Nigerian forward found his way onto the scoresheet in the 84th minute en route to a 2-2 draw to West Brom at Goodison Park.

Anichebe received a generous share of playing time in the seasons that followed but never fully capitalized in stints with the Toffees and later West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland.

Now 30 years old and without a club, Anichebe’s football career sits at a crossroads, but his place as one of the youngest goalscorers in Premier League history remains, having scored at 18 years 14 days.

13. Mark Cullen - 18 years, 12 days

Cullen’s Premier League career was off to an auspicious start when the English forward scored 64 minutes into his first league start for Hull City in 2010.

But he never found the back of the net in England’s top-flight again. Still active - he’s made six appearances in 2018-19 for League Two’s Carlisle United - Cullen has scored 45 more goals over his career, but the one against Wigan in 2010 remains his only in the Premier League.

While his time in the top-flight was short, Cullen remains one of the league’s youngest to ever score at 18 years and 12 days.

12. Lee Cattermole - 18 years, 11 days

Cattermole's first career Premier League goal elevated Middlesbrough to a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in April 2006.

The defensive midfielder scored only five more times over his 12 years in the top-flight with Middlesbrough, Wigan and Sunderland, but has scored six times for the Black Cats in League One this season alone.

Not known for his scoring ability, Cattermole shares a place among some of the greatest scorers in Premier League history, having scored his first top-flight goal at 18 years, 11 days.

11. Danny Welbeck - 17 years, 11 months, 20 days

On as a sub for Manchester United, Welbeck debuted with a cracker of a goal in the 84th minute of a 5-0 win over Stoke City at Old Trafford in 2008.

Welbeck has since gone on the prove himself as a proper scorer in the top-flight, with 42 goals scored in the league over 12 season with United, Sunderland and Arsenal.

The Englishman has scored a number of impressive goals in his time in the Premier League, but none may have been as nice as his first, which he scored at 17 years, 11 months and 20 days.

10. Danny Cadamarteri - 17 years, 11 months, 8 days

The Everton cult hero found the back of the net with his right foot in a 4-2 win over Barnsley in September 1997, notching his first-ever Premier League goal three weeks before his 18th birthday.

Cadamarteri scored 13 more times in the league before tallying another 26 over 13 seasons spent in England's lower-tiers and Scotland's Premiership.

Cadamarteri may not have lived up to the hopes some on Merseysiude once had for him, but the English winger maintains a place in Premier League history on the shortlist of players to score before turning 18-years-old.

9. Mikael Forssell - 17 years, 11 months, 5 days

Forssell’s strike just six minutes into a 1999 meeting away at Nottingham Forest helped Chelsea to a 3-1 victory and gave the young Finnish forward his first career Premier League goal.

Forssell struggled to catch on at Chelsea but became a star at Birmingham City, finishing his Premier League career with 34 goals.

Long gone from England’s top-flight, Forssell’s spot among the 10 youngest scorers in league history – at 17 years, 11 months and five days – is still cemented. 

8. Raheem Sterling - 17 years, 10 months, 12 days

Sterling’s 29th-minute finish past Reading’s Alex McCarthy handed Liverpool victory in October 2012 and gave the young winger his first career goal in the Premier League.

Sterling scored 17 more goals for the Reds before departing for Manchester City in 2015 and has now scored 64 Premier League goals in seven seasons.

Netting his first goal at 17 years, 10 months and 12 days, he is the second-youngest league scorer in Liverpool's history.

7. Federico Macheda - 17 years, 7 months, 14 days

Macheda’s dramatic stoppage time goal lifted Manchester United past Aston Villa in April 2009 and seemed to signal big things to come for the Italian forward.

Instead, it was the first of only four league goals he would score for the club. Macheda later found success in the Football League, where he racked up 19 goals with Doncaster Rovers, Birmingham City and Cardiff City, before time in Italy and now Greece.

Macheda’s career at United failed to live up to the hype, but with his goal at 17 years, seven months and 14 days, he still remains the youngest scorer in the Manchester United's history.

6 - Andy Turner - 17 years, 5 months, 13 days

The Irish midfielder delivered Spurs a stoppage time winner over Everton just weeks into the Premier League’s inaugural season in September 1992.

The goal was Turner’s first in the Premier League and the first of three he would score that campaign, but in the end, they would be the only ones he would score during his three-season Premier League career.

Turner’s is a name that’s long since faded from memory in North London, but among the likes of Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Teddy Sheringham and Harry Kane, it’s the Irishman who comes in as the club’s youngest scorer of all-time.

5. Michael Owen - 17 years, 4 months, 22 days

The future Ballon d’Or winner got his senior career off to a cracking start with a goal on his debut day against Wimbledon in May 1997.

Owen slotted 18 league goals in each of the following two seasons, vaulting himself to international stardom. By the end of his 17-year career in European football, the English forward had scored 150 Premier League goals for Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Stoke City.

Owen’s Premier League goal tally ranks him No. 9 in the all-time charts, but his first goal, at 17 years, four months and 22 days, ranks him as one of the five youngest league goal scorers of all-time.

4. Cesc Fabregas - 17 years, 3 months, 21 days

Fabregas scored the second goal in a 3-0 Arsenal victory over Blackburn early on in the 2004 season, knocking in a Gilberto header with his knee for his first-ever league goal.

The Spaniard would ultimately establish himself as an assist king rather than a goalscorer, but he still managed to rack up 50 league goals over spells with the Gunners and at Chelsea.

More than 15 years on from his first-team debut, Fabregas still owns the distinction as Arsenal’s youngest ever scorer, first finding the net at 17 years, three months and 21 days.

3. Wayne Rooney - 16 years, 11 months, 25 days

Rooney’s stoppage time winner off the crossbar nudged Everton past Arsenal in October 2002, and marked the start of what would become one of the most legendary careers in Premier League history.

The English forward went on to score another 207 league goals after that day. Upon Rooney’s departure from the Premier League in 2018, only Alan Shearer had more goals in the Premier League.

Scoring his first goal at 16 years, 11 months and 25 days, Rooney enjoys the distinction of being one of three players to ever score in the league before their 17th birthday. 

2. James Milner - 16 years, 11 months, 22 days

Football - FA Barclaycard Premiership , Leeds United v Chelsea , 28/12/02 
James Milner celebrates his goal - Leeds United 
Mandatory Credit:Action Images / Andrew Budd

Only a couple of months after Rooney scored his first league goal at the age of 16, Milner topped his fellow Englishmen by a scant three days when he finished off a low cross at the Stadium of Light in 2002 to become the youngest Premier League scorer ever at the time.

It was the first of 52 in the league for Leeds, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Manchester City and now Liverpool for the English midfielder.

Scoring at 16 years, 11 months and 22 days, just barely edging Rooney, Milner’s mark as the youngest scorer of all-time stood for three years. 

1. James Vaughan - 16 years, 8 months, 27 days

Scoring off a pass from Kevin Kilbane, James Vaughan became the Premier League’s youngest scorer all-time on his debut day against Crystal Palace on April 10 2005.

The English forward’s promising start only lasted so long and he scored just six more goals in the league for Everton before departing in 2011.

Vaughan has since found success in England’s lower leagues, most notably scoring 24 for league goals for Bury FC in League One in 2016-17.

While Vaughan’s career may not have reached the heights some may have imagined, no one has, or may ever, score at a younger age than he did back in 2005, at 16 years, eight months and 27 days.