Little more than a decade on, Mikel Arteta is reaping the benefits. Dowman, having set numerous records in Arsenal\u2019s Hale End academy, on Wednesday became the youngest player to start a match for the club. At the age of 15 years and 302 days he left the Emirates entranced by a mesmerising performance in the Carabao Cup win over Brighton<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cA tiny smile, that\u2019s what you get with him,\u201d said a proud Arsenal manager when asked after how the understated Dowman had reacted to news he would surpass his under-18s teammate Jack Porter\u2019s record, established last year in the same competition.<\/p>\n The word has been out on Dowman among Arsenal fans since he was invited to train with Arteta\u2019s squad at the start of last year when he turned 14. A meticulous progression plan has been mapped out for the player some insiders describe as the most talented they have seen at his age.<\/p>\n Dowman became England Under-\u200a19s youngest player last month and their youngest goalscorer just over a fortnight ago. The next big landmark could be breaking Youssoufa Moukoko\u2019s record (16 years and 18 days for Dortmund) as the youngest player in Champions League history. \u201cHe needs to cope with all that because it\u2019s happening very, very fast,\u201d Arteta said.<\/p>\n A young Max Dowman in the youth team at Billericay Town. Photograph: Nick Hutt<\/p>\n According to Hutt, Dowman has been well prepared to deal with the spotlight by his family. Dowman\u2019s father, Rob, an avid Arsenal fan, was heavily involved in discussions that led to his son signing scholarship terms last week amid interest from other clubs. \u201cMax has always been kind of old for his age,\u201d Hutt says. \u201cVery mature, laid-back and he worked incredibly hard at his football. They\u2019re a very grounded family. His mum, Caroline, and Rob, they keep Max grounded. They\u2019re very humble, nice people, very kind of community-focused. So I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve played an important role in getting him ready for where he is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob was coaching Dowman\u2019s older brother Ethan\u2019s team at Billericay when he first brought Max to the club\u2019s Saturday morning soccer school. Hutt, asked whether a particular memory stands out from Dowman\u2019s five years in the colts section, says: \u201cOh, no, there\u2019s too many moments with him. You know what they\u2019re like at that age, when they\u2019re six, seven, eight: they\u2019re really good but there\u2019s no guarantee they\u2019re going to make it or do anything. But Max is just \u2026 I think all the time he was at Arsenal he\u2019s been playing a couple of years above his age group, so we knew he had a real chance. But until they actually make the debut, as he did against Leeds in August<\/a>, you\u2019re never really sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick GuideItoje’s pride at cousin’s Arsenal breakthroughShow ‘I have passed on the baton’: Itoje’s pride at Arsenal starlet<\/p>\n Maro Itoje has admitted he may have to start taking second billing to Arsenal\u2019s latest starlet \u2013 his cousin. Andre Harriman-Annous made his first start for Arsenal on Wednesday as they beat Brighton in the Carabao Cup and Itoje revealed he was \u201cincredibly proud\u201d of the 17-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cI am very happy for him,\u201d said the England captain. \u201cHe has worked incredibly hard over the last 10 years. They start so young, these footballers. I remember going to his house and his older cousins were putting him through his paces as a seven-year-old. Everyone is really happy and really proud. His mum has been amazing and is making sure there\u2019s a good team around him.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Itoje was no longer the big deal in the family, he said: \u201cI have passed on the baton. I guess we need you media guys to do a better job for us and get some more rugby on the back pages. I want him to fly. He has done amazingly well and long may it continue \u2013 not only because he is my cousin but I support Arsenal. It is a double whammy.\u201d Robert Kitson<\/p>\n Photograph: David Price\/Arsenal FC<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The Dowmans have had a long association with Billericay Town, who play in the Isthmian League Premier Division in England\u2019s seventh tier. Rob Dowman\u2019s father was a goalkeeper for the youth team and Rob played for the club in his childhood before joining the coaching staff.<\/p>\n Billericay briefly found themselves in the media spotlight when the Essex businessman Glenn Tamplin signed several former professionals, including Jamie O\u2019Hara and Jermaine Pennant, during his brief spell at the helm. Rob Dowman joined the consortium<\/a> that took over when Tamplin departed in 2019 and played a major part in extending the youth section, which has 55 teams, before leaving when he set up his own insurance company.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cRob was one of the four of us who stepped in to help save the club,\u201d says Hutt. \u201cCaroline would help out in the club shop. Max\u2019s two older siblings, Ethan and Imogen, worked behind the bar. It was a real family affair. And Max would always be around the club. In fact, when Arsenal closed down for the summer, Max would come and train back with his old team at Billericay. He even trained with the men\u2019s first team on a few occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal snapped up three of Dowman\u2019s Billericay teammates after spotting him in 2015, with two of them \u2013 Noah Clements and Marley Frohock \u2013 making progress at Hale End, even if it has not been quite as spectacular as Dowman\u2019s.<\/p>\n Max Dowman on his debut against Leeds in August. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got boys at Man City, we\u2019ve got boys at Man United, but they\u2019re really just starting to come through now,\u201d Hutt says. \u201cLots of boys. We\u2019ve got a few junior schoolboy internationals. Essex is a pretty hotbed of football, so there\u2019s lots of talent coming out of here. Obviously, we\u2019re one of the bigger clubs in the area so that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n Dowman, who is due to complete his GCSEs next year, regularly returns to his old stamping ground at Billericay, where Hutt says he is a \u201chero for a lot of the local children\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMax shows that a young boy from Billericay can end up playing in the Premier League,\u201d he says. \u201cIt gives people somebody to look up to. And we\u2019re really happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was never a question about which club Max Dowman wanted to join after he was spotted playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-262180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4430.jpg\")
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