Mauricio Baldivieso, below, made his debut for his local Club Aurora from Cochobamba* against La Paz in the Bolivian First Division on July 19th 2009; he became the youngest footballer to play at the top level in South America; he was 12 years old (3 days off his 13th birthday) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PVsNVXmZZQ the link does cover his story, sort of....you will see much of the "best" of South American football!!!
All this despite Cochobamba* being the first place where rugby union in Bolivia was played!
*(Quechua refers to a lake....bampa refers to the "pampa" which means grassland plain in Latin America).......
Coming on as a late sub, he was subjected to a nasty "welcome to adult football" tackle (see video above) which resulted in much entertainment for the crowd. The manager of Aurora at the time was Julio Cesar...Mauricio's dad! Mauricio played at Aurora through to 2013 making 20 apps and scoring 3 goals. In 2013, at 16 years old, he then played at Real Potosi, then for Nacional Potosi, for a spell, until 2014, moving to Universitario de Sucre for a season, but only played 3 times.
Then he joined Jorge Wilstermann, in 2015, where the club's chairman.....Dr Jorge Rojas changed his club's colours to red and blue because "the colours mean force, ferocity and total dedication in the field". Mauricio left the club in 2016 after 8 games and 1 goal. Baldivieso signed for Club San Jose, where he made just 13 more appearances as a professional before being released in 2018.
Some other youngsters:
In May 2019, Liverpool's Harvey Elliot became the youngest Premier League player in history at 16 years and 30 days old.
Just over a year after Elliot's achievement, RCD Mallorca's Luka Romero broke La Liga's 80-year record by making his debut at 15 years and 219 days old.
In November 2020, Borussia Dortmund prodigy Youssoufa Moukoko's appearance from the bench against Hertha Berlin a day after his 16th birthday made him the Bundesliga's youngest ever player.
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