Last Updated:
Arsenal’s 16-year-old sensation Max Dowman becomes youngest Premier League starter.
Max Dowman (Picture credit: AP)
Arsenal teenage sensation Max Dowman became the youngest player to start a Premier League match on Sunday. With the title already wrapped up, Mikel Arteta put the 16-year-old in the number 10 position for the final league match against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
At 16 years and 144 days, he broke the record of Everton’s Jose Baxter, who started against West Bromwich Albion in 2008 by 54 days.
Dowman is considered one of the biggest talents in English football. Despite being a teenager, he has shown incredible physicality to go shoulder-to-shoulder with Premier League footballers double his age, while also offering an eye-catching creativity and spark.
He has already played five top-flight games for Arsenal. The most important was his 20-minute cameo against Everton at the Emirates, where he assisted a lock-opener for Victor Gyokeres and then ran the length of the pitch in extra time to score and become the youngest goal scorer in the competition’s history.
Mikel Arteta said he wanted to reward Dowman for that moment with a start.
“Max needs to be there because he created a moment this season when something changed. The people who contributed deserve to be on that pitch.”
Youngest players to start a Premier League match
| Rank | Player | Club | Age at First Start | They will oppose | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Dowman | Arsenal | 16 years, 144 days | Crystal Palace | 2026 |
| 2 | Jose Baxter | Everton | 16 years, 198 days | West Bromwich Albion | 2008 |
| 3 | Reece Oxford | West Ham United | 16 years, 236 days | Arsenal | 2015 |
| 4 | Wayne Rooney | Everton | 16 years, 297 days | Tottenham Hotspur | 2002 |
| 5 | Neil Finn | West Ham United | 17 years, 3 days | Manchester City | 1996 |
Dowman is also the youngest player to win the Premier League. He’d receive his medal after the match and would also get a guard of honor from the Crystal Palace players.
To put his feat into context, Dowman missed Arsenal training after the Premier League title was secured because he had to go and sit in for his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams.
Read More
Source link
[ad_3]
