Youngest Players to Represent Arsenal

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Arsenal fans
Arsenal fans (CHEN WEI SENG | Wikipedia)

Over the years Arsenal’s exceptional academy has produced a huge number of brilliant footballers who have gone on to have great careers at the club. It has also played a big role in developing other young footballers who, even if they didn’t quite make the grade with the Gunners, went on to have successful employment with other teams.

Indeed, the club’s official site stated in September 2022 that “82 of our last 200 first-team debutants – stretching back to the beginning of the millennium – were products of the Arsenal Academy.” That is an incredibly high number and the productivity of the academy is something that has played a key role in ensuring the club has stayed on the right side of Profit & Sustainability regulations.

Developing homegrown players is also vital in strengthening the bond between the club and the fans. Whilst not all academy products are truly “one of our own”, the link between local players – and even ones who have simply been part of the academy for many years – and the supporters is something quite beautiful in a world so often dominated by money.

One young Gunner was in the news this week after bagging a brace against Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Cup. Ethan Nwaneri is a name that most Arsenal fans will be very familiar with and on the 25th of September, 2024 he got his first goal for the club – and then very quickly his second.

On the night, Mikel Arteta took something of an Arsène Wenger approach to the League Cup and fielded a number of youngsters. Over the course of the comfortable 5-1 romp, no fewer than six teenagers took to the pitch for Arsenal. So, it seems like a great time to consider some of the youngest players to ever play for the club and look at the various records they hold.

Nwaneri the History Maker


On the 18th of September, 2022, Nwaneri made history by becoming the youngest Arsenal player to appear in the Premier League. The Gunners were 3-0 up away at Brentford when Arteta brought the schoolboy on in the closing stages of the clash. Greeted by chants of “School in the morning, he’s got school in the morning”, the 15-year-old became not just the youngest Arsenal player to appear in the Premier League, but the youngest from any club.

At the remarkable age of just 15 years and 181 days, he was significantly younger than Harvey Elliot when the midfielder made his bow for Fulham in 2019. Elliot, now at Liverpool, was 16 years and 30 days old when he became the youngest-ever player to grace the Premier League. Among the other youngest players in the history of the competition are Wayne Rooney (16 years and 297 days), James Milner (16 years, 310 days), Angel Gomes (16 years and 263 days) and Arsenal’s very own Jack Wilshere (16 years, 256 days).

When he entered the fray against Brentford it was Jack Wilshere’s club record that Nwaneri broke. Wilshere made his debut against Blackburn in 2008 and just happens to have been Nwaneri’s Under 18 coach at the time of the 15-year-old’s Premier League debut.

Youngest Ever in English Football

Nwaneri’s remarkable feat is not just a club record or a Premier League one either, but he is now the youngest man to ever play in the top tier of English football. Back in 1964, Derek Foster was 15 years and 184 days old when he played for Sunderland against Leicester. Foster actually started the game and the goalkeeper retains that record (the youngest to start a top-tier clash) but Nwaneri pipped his appearance record, that had stood for over 60 years, by a mere three days.

Nwaneri clearly has a massively promising future but as good as he may be, we should avoid getting ahead of ourselves. For every Rooney and Milner on the list of youngest Premier League players, and even those such as Wilshere and Aaron Lennon, there is an Antwoine Hackford (now at Port Vale) and a Jose Baxter (retired at the age of 29 with just seven Premier League appearances to his name).

Promising Future

That said, Nwaneri really does look like an incredible prospect. Still just 17 the midfielder has played for the England Under 19 side twice, scoring once, but has been a regular with U17 team. He has appeared at that age group’s Euros and World Cup and boasts 28 caps and 15 goals for them. A brilliantly talented attacking midfielder he scores and creates goals and is flexible positionally, though may be best as a number 10. He has given four minutes in the north London derby and the full 90 in the EFL Cup and will be pressing for further inclusion throughout what could be a real breakout season for him.

Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas
Cesc Fabregas (sportsphotographer.eu | Bigstockphoto)

Fabregas was almost a full year older than Nwaneri when he made his debut for Arsenal in the League Cup against Rotherham. Aged 16 years and 177 days he was the youngest player to represent the Gunners (in all competitions) prior to Nwaneri’s bow. That game came in 2003, well before Nwaneri was born on the 21st of March 2007 (which means he is younger than the Emirates Stadium!).

And Fabregas Loses Another Record


We mentioned that the Gunners fielded six teenagers against Bolton recently and one of those stole another record that had previously been held by Fabregas. Jack Porter was the youngest of the sextet, being only a couple of months past his 16th birthday.

Born on the 15th of July 2008, goalkeeper Porter, was just 16 years and 72 days old when he stepped doubt to face Bolton. That meant he was very much the youngest of the lot, with Nwaneri next at 17 years and 189 days. Whilst Porter was unable to break the attacking midfielder’s record for the youngest player to ever represent the club, he did beat Fabregas’s mark for the youngest to ever start a game.

London lad Porter had been named in a few squads during the 2024/25 campaign, including in the Champions League game with Atalanta and the trip to the Etihad to face City. However, he got his chance against Bolton and whilst he was unable to keep a clean sheet, it is surely a memory he will cherish – and a record that could last for some time yet.