“No 7! No 7! Can we’ve got your shirt please?”
These high-pitched cries felt just like the soundtrack to the night at a stadium on the outskirts of London on Saturday as a bunch of younger youngsters always pleaded with Arsenal’s proper winger handy over his jersey.
The venue was Meadow Park, residence of non-League Boreham Wooden, and the participant in query was Max Dowman.
Taking part in three years above his age, Dowman was making his FA Youth Cup debut towards Queens Park Rangers – a goalscoring debut, too. In September, he made his UEFA Youth League debut towards Atalanta and, on the age of 14 years, eight months and 19 days, turned the youngest participant ever to attain within the competitors. In between, Dowman made his first look for Arsenal’s under-21s – a boy towards males.
Maybe there would have been a Premier League debut as effectively this season however for the foundations and rules getting in the way in which. You have to be at the least an under-16 (15 years of age by August 31, 2024 for the present season) to seem within the English prime flight, which isn’t the case in every single place else. In concept, Dowman might play in La Liga now.
“For the time being, with all of the laws, there are restrictions in your age — one thing that in different nations you don’t even point out,” Arsenal’s supervisor Mikel Arteta mentioned this week when requested about the potential of Dowman getting some first-team minutes. “We’ll have to attend and see. However he’s taking very quick steps as a result of each time you place him at a special degree he overcomes that hurdle fairly shortly.”
Dowman takes directions from Arteta in first-team coaching at Arsenal (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
Get able to really feel previous. Dowman was born in 2009 — simply. He celebrated his fifteenth birthday on New 12 months’s Eve, which suggests — and this a part of his story is straightforward to miss if you concentrate on his soccer journey — that he’s presently in 12 months 10 in school and gained’t be sitting his GCSE exams till the summer time after subsequent. It is going to be one other two years earlier than Dowman can drive a automobile in England and three years earlier than he can purchase a beer.
In different phrases, he’s a gifted younger footballer who performs with a maturity past his years however, in the end, remains to be a teenage child — and that provides an additional layer of duty to the way you write about him.
These bursts of velocity with the ball glued to his boot, his pretty knack of dropping his shoulder and gliding in off the fitting flank to shoot (or rating, within the case of Saturday), the eye-of-the needle passes that he noticed and also you didn’t, and the way in which that he receives so naturally with the skin of his left foot earlier than spinning away from opponents… it could be straightforward to make comparisons with gamers X, Y and Z. However it could even be foolish to do this.
Dowman taking part in for England U17 towards Belgium U17 in November (Neil Baynes – The FA/The FA by way of Getty Photos)
What we will say with out getting carried away is that Dowman has enormous potential and that seeing him operating with the ball on Saturday, leaving a path of QPR gamers in his wake at occasions, took your breath away — even in the event you have been supporting Arsenal’s opponents.
“Oh, Jesus,” mentioned the voice within the row in entrance as Dowman set off on one other of his trademark surges within the second half.
Remarkably, Dowman skilled alongside him as a 14-year-old at Arsenal — Gabriel Jesus, that’s. Certainly, at an age when his friends are kicking a ball about within the playground earlier than double maths, Dowman has been wowing Arsenal’s first-team squad together with his capability.
“A few of the issues that he does in coaching are unbelievable,” Arteta mentioned on Tuesday, after Dowman took half in Arsenal’s session previous to their Champions League recreation towards Dinamo Zagreb. “He’s a participant with an enormous expertise.”
Reporting twice per week to London Colney (the house of Arsenal’s under-18s, under-21s and first crew) as a part of a bespoke improvement programme that features one-to-one classes, Dowman has been round Arteta’s squad for some time now.
Dowman turns away from Jorginho in Arsenal coaching (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
Sooner or later within the close to future — and it’s absolutely only a query of when — the accelerated pathway that Dowman is on will culminate in a senior debut at Arsenal and see him be a part of up completely with Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, who’re nonetheless younger sufficient to play within the FA Youth Cup this season however have each flown the under-18 nest to grow to be common members of the first-team squad.
That isn’t hyperbole in relation to Dowman. It’s only a logical development for somebody who featured for Arsenal under-18s when he was 13 and have become the membership’s youngest-ever under-21 participant on the age of 14. In truth, just about from the second he walked by way of the door at Arsenal on the age of 4, Dowman has been taking part in upfront of his years. Even at worldwide degree, Dowman performs two years above his age for England Underneath-17s.
Rice and Dowman in Arsenal coaching on January 21 (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
With out seeing Dowman play, the pure assumption can be that he’s a strong early developer, as is commonly the case with youngsters who’re fast-tracked by way of the academy age teams. Dowman is that to a degree — he’s an excellent athlete, for certain — however he doesn’t thrive simply due to his physicality. His acceleration is a giant asset however his distinctive technical capability, and the intelligence with which he performs and sees the sport, actually stand out.
“Please log on and take a look at this child,” Rio Ferdinand mentioned on his YouTube channel in November. “He was 14, I noticed him teaching 18 and 19-year-olds on the pitch when he was taking part in with them. Unhealthy participant (which on this context really means good participant).”
These web showreels of Dowman are jaw-dropping at occasions, particularly given the age disparity, and offer you an perception into what all of the fuss is about. He’s able to taking part in in a number of positions (many within the recreation suppose Dowman will find yourself extra centrally, as a No 8 or a No 10), has a beautiful vary of passing, dribbles superbly and scores freely.
Dowman in motion within the Youth Champions League towards Sporting CP (David Worth/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
On the similar time, there’s nothing fairly like seeing a participant carry out reside. You get to soak up the larger image that the video highlights don’t present, together with how a participant interacts together with his team-mates and his coach, the positions they take up on the pitch after they don’t have the ball at their toes, and the way they take care of moments of adversity.
Early within the second half on Saturday, after Dowman skipped away from an opponent on the touchline, one other QPR participant got here throughout to make a sturdy problem from the aspect. It was a good deal with — he took the ball — nevertheless it was full-blooded too and he cleaned Dowman out within the course of.
One of many different QPR gamers revelled within the second — one thing that’s going to occur. It’s soccer. Teenage testosterone and all that. Plus, Dowman’s popularity as a rising star precedes him at academy degree particularly and that may stir all types of feelings in others.
Shirt and shorts lined in mud, Dowman received up, brushed himself down (actually) and didn’t have any subject with the problem. He appeared much less impressed with the response elsewhere however handled it coolly, calmly waving his finger from a distance a number of moments later and saying nothing. Others — and that features gamers twice his age — may need been rattled and misplaced their focus.
That wasn’t the case with Dowman, whose speaking was completed together with his boots. He by no means stopped displaying for the ball throughout 136 minutes of soccer (it was a protracted evening with additional time) and, not surprisingly, his Arsenal team-mates stored giving it to him.
With a little bit over 20 minutes of regular time remaining and Arsenal trailing 2-1, Dowman pounced on a defensive mistake, dummied to shoot, shifted inside to open up the angle on his left foot and drilled residence the equaliser. The result felt inevitable from the second he picked up the ball.
An essential equaliser from Dowman 🪄#AFCU18 | #FAYouthCup pic.twitter.com/TlEtsTnchu
— Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) January 18, 2025
He additionally delivered an clever go to launch Dan Casey within the inside proper channel to cross for Arsenal’s third aim on an evening when 18-year-old Emmerson Sutton scored a formidable hat-trick for QPR.
Most likely the overriding impression after watching Dowman is how completely comfortable he’s with a ball at his toes. He by no means appeared remotely flustered in possession, even when taking the ball underneath stress deep inside his personal half, and people ranges of confidence and self-belief manifested themselves in different methods too.
When the Arsenal gamers gathered in a huddle on the finish of additional time and their coach Adam Birchall requested who wished to take a penalty, Dowman’s hand went straight up within the air. Arsenal missed their first spot kick however Dowman scored their second and, following some heroics from their goalkeeper Jack Porter, they triumphed to arrange a fifth-round tie towards Fulham.
Dowman celebrates with goalkeeper Porter after Arsenal went by way of on penalties (Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
After celebrating together with his team-mates on the remaining whistle, Dowman climbed over the seats within the stand to embrace his household and mates. He was nonetheless sporting full package, together with the No 7 shirt that most individuals within the stadium — not simply the youngsters who wished to take residence a memento — had their eyes on all evening.
(Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)