Max Dowman’s rise to Arsenal superstardom

At what age does it first become clear that a child is exceptionally talented? In the case of Max Dowman, Arsenal’s teenage sensation, it was four years old. That was when he was first spotted by scout John Knight and taken into Arsenal’s pre-academy setup.

Dowman, evidently, has been ahead of the curve for a while. He probably cannot even remember a time when he was not skipping past opponents with a ball at his feet. Such things come naturally to the 16-year-old, as he demonstrated so wonderfully in Arsenal’s victory over Everton on Saturday night.

Poor Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, an excellent player with around 250 professional appearances to his name, looked devastated when Dowman’s change of direction left him sprawled on the Emirates turf in the final minutes of the game. The Everton midfielder simply lay there, defeated, as a GCSE student ran downfield and became the youngest scorer in both Premier League and Arsenal history.

In time, Dewsbury-Hall will no doubt come to feel better about this particular moment. He was not the first player to be humiliated by Dowman, and we can be certain that he will not be the last. Dowman has been doing this to older opponents for most of his life, after all, and his professional career is just getting started.

To the wider world, Dowman’s rise is astonishing. To those who have seen his journey through the academy, though, it is perhaps less of a surprise. Dowman has been so advanced for so long that there has been a buzz and excitement around his name for many years.

Dowman’s list of personal records speaks for itself. At 13, he became the youngest player to represent Arsenal’s under-18s. At 14, he became the youngest to represent their under-21s. He played for England’s under-17s at 14, which is also the age at which he started training with Arsenal’s first team.

Earlier this year, he became the youngest player in the history of the Champions League. A few days earlier, he had become Arsenal’s youngest ever starter.

Dowman’s emergence is so thrilling not just because of his age, but also because of his style of play. His game is defined by close control, technique and an ability to dribble at pace. He has a scuttling, short-strided running style that allows him to change direction and shift the ball away from opponents. He came onto the pitch in the 74th minute against Everton, and still had the most dribbles of any player on either side.

Last season, this author twice travelled to watch Dowman play in academy games. On both occasions, he was so far ahead of his opponents and team-mates that he was almost playing a different sport. The speed of his movement, the crispness of his touch, the sense that he could score at any moment: it was obvious then that he had outgrown youth football. If Premier League rules did not prevent him from playing for the senior team last year, he might have broken through even earlier.

Almost as striking as Dowman’s goal against Everton was the faith that his team-mates showed in him after he entered the game. Under enormous pressure, chasing the league title, the senior players constantly looked to Dowman on the right wing.

In his 23 minutes on the pitch he had 28 touches of the ball, which was more touches than Kai Havertz (who played 61 minutes), Jurrien Timber (38 minutes), Viktor Gyokeres (36 minutes) and Gabriel Martinelli (36 minutes). Clearly, Dowman’s team-mates believe he belongs alongside them.

“When you see him play, you don’t think that he’s 16,” said Gyokeres. “You don’t think about it when he has the ball, with the composure and the confidence he plays with.”

Around the time of Dowman’s first-team breakthrough in pre-season, Arsenal were understandably keen to control the hype around the winger. That has become an impossible task as the campaign has developed. There can be no keeping a lid on a player as exciting as this. Indeed, Dowman last month starred in an Adidas commercial alongside Arsenal great Ian Wright.

Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, has long since given up trying to contain expectations. In January, he likened the teenager to a young Lionel Messi, saying: “What he’s done with us at the age of 15, me personally, I haven’t seen it before. Only with a guy that used to play in Barcelona but maybe not even that.”

Those comments came after Dowman signed a pre-contract agreement with the club, which will be followed by a professional deal when he turns 17 in December. Dowman had huge interest from other leading teams, as one would expect, but there was never a sense that he could leave the Emirates Stadium. He comes from a family of Arsenal supporters in Essex. His father handled the negotiations over his contract.

Dowman’s last two performances – a man-of-the-match showing on a boggy pitch against Mansfield Town last weekend, and Saturday’s game-winning intervention against Everton – are all the more remarkable because they were his first senior games since November, after he suffered an ankle injury in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Manchester United.

For all the focus on Dowman’s technical skill, it is the mental side that appears to have impressed Arteta the most. “He does not seem to be fazed by the pressure or his team-mates or the opponent,” Arteta said on Saturday. “I’ve seen a lot of players with talent but at 16, very few that can cope with that level of demand.

“You just have to see him train every single day. Honestly, some of the things that he does, he does it against these defenders that are some of the best in the world. So he can do it against anybody else.”

Every title-winning campaign has a unique moment which comes to define the season. For Arsenal, Dowman’s goal against Everton could be that defining act. Their hope will be that it is simply the first of many such interventions in an Arsenal shirt for the most thrilling young talent in English football.

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