Pele remains the benchmark, winning a World Cup at 17 and being the youngest scorer in a final. Kylian Mbappe is next, doing that at 19. They may not go all the way, but three days into the 23rd World Cup, some young players have already given notice of their potential. And Lamine Yamal has not even begun.At 16 years and three days, Bouaddi was deemed good enough by Lille to make his debut in the Conference League. (Reuters)Step forward Gilberto Mora and Ayyoub Bouaddi. Not much behind are Luc de Fougerolles and Nestory Irankunda. Mexico’s Mora is 17, Moroccan Bouaddi turned 18 in October, and Canada’s Fougerolles and Australia’s Irankunda stepped into their 20s months before the tournament kicked off in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Turkiye’s midfield master Arda Guler doesn’t figure in this conversation because, well, he is 21.About Irankunda first. Few players in the world can put in the shade an angular delight from Vinicius Jr, one that fetched Brazil a point in their opening match against Morocco earlier on Sunday. Latching on to a pass from Bruno Guimaraes and exploiting Achraf Hakimi’s tendency to stay up the park, Vinicius Jr cut inside, beat Neil El Aynaou and fired. It neutralised Morocco’s goal by Ismail Saibari — he, who couldn’t walk till he was two and had replied to Anderlecht discarding him because he was fat by, what else, scoring against them as a boy — who had lobbed Alisson Becker after Brahim Diaz found him with a peach of a pass.Vinicius Jr’s and Saibari’s goals put into perspective Irankunda’s strike. Seventeen seconds was all it took for Australia to counter-attack after Patrick Beach collected Guler’s first-time attempt. Beach relayed the ball to Irankunda — like Canada skipper Alphonso Davies, he began life as a refugee — with two touches in the outfield. Irankunda cut inside, saw where goalkeeper Ugurkan Cakir was, and instead of doing what Vinicius Jr did, chose a more difficult option by aiming for the near post. And nailed it.Before Irankunda became Australia’s youngest goalscorer, Bouaddi bossed Casemiro and Guimaraes in midfield. He is tall and strong like Yamal but operates in a deeper, more central area. At 16 years and three days, Bouaddi was deemed good enough by Lille to make his debut in the Conference League.Paris St-Germain boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi was in attendance in New Jersey and, though Vitinha, Joao Neves and Ferran Torres comprise club football’s best midfield, Bouaddi is unlikely to be surplus to his requirements. Not after completing 60 passes, 16 of them in the final third against Brazil. Not after six ball recoveries, five interceptions, winning nine duels and dribbling past opponents three times. Precision is an important part of Bouaddi’s game, not unusual for a teen who concentrates on mathematics and physics when not focusing on finding teammates with killer passes. He could have played for France but has opted for Morocco.Mora had the Azteca Stadium chanting his name when he entered the Mexico-South Africa contest as a second-half substitute. On an afternoon that was about Raul Jimenez, who is more than twice Mora’s age, getting his first goal in a World Cup, the midfielder was calm, kept the ball in difficult areas and showed why elite clubs are watching him. That Mora is known as the Mexican Pedri tells you all you need to know about him.Finally, Fougerolles. The ball-carrying Canadian centre-back may remind people of Josko Gvardiol in 2022, for he has the Croat’s confidence and leadership skills. He can protect the ball and is not afraid to dribble. Fougerolles learnt the ropes at Fulham and now plays in Belgium.Australia’s sucker punch against Turkiye, who had nearly 30 shots but no goal, also saw the son of an Anglo-Indian mother get game time in a World Cup match when Nishan Vellupillay came on in the second half. That happened hours after Qatar bagged their first point in the finals and a day after Canada got theirs. Morocco have shown that even though they were awarded the Africa Cup of Nations title as an afterthought, their semi-final run in 2022 was no fluke.All of this has livened up the World Cup. So has youthful exuberance. “Young dreams should be dreamed together, and the young hearts shouldn’t be afraid,” Cliff Richards had sung all those years ago. These young ones have done that in a competition that is also about the last dance of Neymar Jr — injured and therefore not much more than heavy jewellery, a cap and a wave on Sunday — Edin Dzeko, Luka Modric, Casemiro and, whisper it, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.