Oakleigh Cannons' fantasy run may be over - but their beaming 13-year-old goalkeeper, Ymer Abili, was still left in dreamland in Melbourne as the youngest soccer player ever to grace the Australia Cup.
Less than 24 hours after another schoolboy Christopher Atherton became the youngest ever to appear in any senior match in the UK at 13, young Abili beamed his own way into Australian soccer annals with a cameo appearance in the Cannons' semi-final defeat by Macarthur.
With the Victorian semi-pro side's romantic run about to be ended by A-League Men's Macarthur, who were leading 5-2 in their semi-final in the dying minutes, Cannons' coach Chris Taylor took the chance to give Abili, who usually plays for their Under-14s, his fairytale moment.
