Records tumble as Donczew becomes Cardiff's youngest player

Axel Donczew (R), preparing to come on for his Cardiff debut, has played for Wales Under-16s

John Toshack held the record of being Cardiff City's youngest player for 42 years. Aaron Ramsey then had the honour for 18 years. Rob Tankiewicz? Just 64 minutes.

Midfielder Tankiewicz started in Tuesday's EFL Trophy match against Newport County at the age of 16 years and 117 days.

That saw him break the record set by Wales captain Ramsey, who made his Cardiff debut at 16 years and 123 days old in 2007, to surpass John Toshack's previous mark from 1965.

But just as Tankiewicz was getting used to his achievement, Cardiff replaced him with Axel Donczew, even younger at 15 years and 234 days.

Both are attacking midfielders, products of the Bluebirds' academy and Wales youth internationals, though they both qualify to play for Poland.

"I think it's probably a bit surreal for them in this moment, but you can see from their families it's an extraordinarily powerful occasion for them," said Cardiff head coach Brian Barry-Murphy.

"It's an insight into what we want this club to become - exceptionally talented players from the city representing their home club.

"Those two have really earned their place in this squad irrespective of how many players we had away or not available. We have the highest hopes for them the future."

Tankiewicz and Donczew are both seen as a creative central midfielders capable of performing a few different roles in that area of the field, though they featured in wide positions against Newport.

"You got a first sight of Rob, who had a really good debut and was probably close to coming on on Saturday [in the 4-3 League One win over Leyton Orient] and also for Axel to come on and show real signs of what we've seen in training at such a young age," Barry-Murphy added.

"We see them very much inside. We finished the game with Troy Perrett, who's never played wide, on one side, and Axel on the other side. He's very much a central player who can play inside in attacking midfield areas.

"Chris Willock wasn't fit after the weekend and there was nobody else. In their first game, we would like them to play in their best position but, just based on what we have and what we could do tonight, I thought they adapted well to what we asked of them."