THE BOY'S A BIT SPECIAL

We kick things off for 2025-26 with this feature's youngest ever player

- Words Joe Donnohue

MAX DOWMAN ARSENAL, 15

Dowman was fouled nine times during one half of an England Under-19 game in September, seven of those by the same Spanish fullback. By foul four or five, the defender wasn't even trying to disguise his attempts at thwarting Dowman illegally.

The Arsenal youngster is, by FFT's reckoning, the youngest of nearly 500 players to be spotlighted in The Boy's A Bit Special. He turns 16 on New Year's Eve and has been setting records for some time already. Last September, aged 14, he became the UEFA Youth League's youngest ever goalscorer when he found the net for Arsenal U19s against Atalanta. Before turning 15, he was also the youngest player to represent the Gunners at U21 level, a record that stood for 51 years, and beat Ethan Nwaneri as the club's youngest Premier League 2 player.

The fact he reached those milestones while representing a club with Arsenal's talent pool is the greatest endorsement – although Dowman couldn't quite take Nwaneri's record as youngest first-team player, when he made his debut off the bench against Leeds in August. He still won a penalty inside 30 minutes, mind.