Penalties are supposed to be a young man's nightmare, but Kerim Alajbegovic treated them like a playground. The 18-year-old came off the bench in Zenica and coolly converted in Bosnia and Herzegovina's 4-1 shootout win over Italy, just days after slotting home the decisive penalty against Wales in the play-off semi-final. Two shootouts, two conversions, one World Cup ticket, all before his nineteenth birthday.

Alajbegovic was born in Cologne, Germany, and developed at his hometown club before joining Bayer Leverkusen's academy in 2021. Germany's loss became Bosnia's gain: despite overtures from the German setup, he pulled on the Bosnian shirt at under-15 level in 2022, captained the under-17s for 17 matches, and made his senior debut in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Austria. Coach Sergej Barbarez, the former Bundesliga striker, has managed the prodigy with a mix of admiration and fatherly caution.

His breakthrough season came in Austria. Sent to RB Salzburg for the 2025-26 campaign in search of regular senior football, Alajbegovic scored 13 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions, operating from either wing and showing an output far beyond his years. Leverkusen moved quickly to bring him back into the fold before agreeing his permanent transfer, a sequence that underlines how violently his market value shifted in the space of twelve months.

The reward was a dream move. In August 2026, Juventus announced the signing of the winger from Bayer Leverkusen for 30 million euros, handing the teenager a five-year contract in Turin. For a player who had left Germany in search of first-team minutes only a year earlier, it was a staggering rise, and it made him one of the most expensive teenagers the Bianconeri have ever signed.

He carried his nerve onto the biggest stage of all. Alajbegovic started all three of Bosnia's group games in North America and scored the opening goal in the 3-1 victory over Qatar that sent his country into the knockout rounds for the first time, where they fell 2-0 to co-hosts the United States. 'It's simply wonderful to have such a young player and to know what he's capable of,' Barbarez said. 'We waited a long time for him to be ready, and we'll do everything to make sure the pressure doesn't overwhelm him.' The teenager himself was understated: 'I am so proud that we fought fiercely till the end.'

Bosnia's golden generation now has a new face, and Juventus have a project for the next decade. The penalties against Wales and Italy will forever define his origin story, but the real test begins in Serie A. Moise Kean knows better than most how fine the margins are, after his early goal in Zenica ultimately counted for nothing, and Italy's play-off run remains the cautionary tale of what happens when a golden chance slips through your fingers.