Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kunshan: Korea Republic’s Cho Jae-wan etched himself into the AFC U23 Championship record books on Saturday when he scored the fastest goal in the three editions of the tournament’s finals, and the second quickest in Asian Football Confederation history.
The Seoul E-Land FC midfielder fired home after only 11.35 seconds of his side’s quarter-final win over Malaysia, to narrowly beat the previous competition record of 11.47 seconds which was registered by Uzbekistan’s Dostonbek Khamdamov at the 2016 continental gathering in Qatar.
As rapid as Cho’s goal may have been, it was, however, still not as quick as Sebastian Soria’s 2013 strike for Lekhwiya in an AFC Champions League encounter against Pakhtakor when the Qatari star opened the scoring after only 9.34 seconds of the game in Tashkent.
Elsewhere, Ali Mabkhout can lay claim to the fastest AFC Asian Cup finals goal courtesy of his strike on 14 seconds for the United Arab Emirates against Bahrain in Australia.
Photo: AFC