Gavi is now Spain’s youngest scorer at a World Cup.
Spain boss Luis Enrique predicted Gavi will be “one of the stars of world football.” The Barcelona midfielder became the youngest World Cup goalscorer since Pele 64 years ago.
Gavi was also a goalscorer in Spain’s stunning victory in World Cup opener. He scored Spain’s fifth goal in a 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica. It was La Roja’s biggest-ever World Cup victory.
The Barcelona midfielder’s World Cup goal, a brilliant volley with the outside of the foot that went in off a post, came at the age of 18 years and 110 days. Pele scored against Wales in a 1958 quarter-final at the age of 17 years and 249 days.
Enrique said: “Gavi is a unique player. He is 18 but he has the personality of an experienced player.
“He’s a boy who needs a little bit of calm sometimes. But we are happy to have him in the team and he’s going to be one of the stars of world football.”
Gavi became Spain’s youngest goalscorer when he scored against the Czech Republic and before his 18th birthday in June. He is now Spain’s youngest scorer at a World Cup.
“We don’t have one striker who scores many goals,” Enrique said. “But we have lots of players who score goals and I have never been worried about the lack of goals.
“We are always the highest scorers in competitions.
“This was a very special game for us and we wanted to start the competition in the best way possible. We don’t start well (in tournaments). We almost never win the first game, but we have managed to break that.”
Spain will play against Germany next and could effectively put the four-time winners out of the tournament.
Asked about that possibility, Enrique said: “I don’t want to speculate on that. Germany is an amazing team.
“We have to be calm, even though we have had a big victory.
“I don’t think they had one chance. We dominated from the first minute and we created spaces to have good chances.”
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