Table of Contents
Ethan Nwaneri became
the youngest Premier
League player ever when he appeared for Arsenal in September
2022 versus Brentford. Here, we look at the youngest players in the
history of the competition.
Top 20
Youngest Premier League Players
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal) – 15 years, 181 days
old - Max Dowman (Arsenal) – 15 years, 235 days
old - Jeremy Monga (Leicester City) – 15 years, 271
days old - Harvey Elliott (Fulham) – 16 years, 30 days
old - Matthew Briggs (Fulham) – 16 years, 68 days
old - Izzy Brown (West Bromwich Albion) – 16 years,
117 days old - Aaron Lennon (Leeds Utd) – 16 years, 129 days
old - Jose Baxter (Everton) – 16 years, 191 days
old - Joél Drakes-Thomas (Crystal Palace) – 16
years, 194 days old - Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (Aston Villa) – 16
years, 198 days old - Gary McSheffrey (Coventry City) – 16 years,
198 days old - Jake Evans (Leicester City) – 16 years, 234
days old - Reece Oxford (West Ham United) – 16 years, 236
days old - Jack Robinson (Liverpool) – 16 years, 250 days
old - Jack Wilshere (Arsenal) – 16 years, 256 days
old - Angel Gomes (Manchester United) – 16 years,
263 days old - Mark Platts (Sheffield Wednesday) – 16 years,
263 days old - James Vaughan (Everton) – 16 years, 270 days
old - Mikey Moore (Tottenham Hotspur) – 16 years,
277 days old - Antwoine Hackford (Sheffield United) – 16
years, 288 days old
Ethan Nwaneri – 15 years, 181
days old
Arsenal vs Brentford (19 September 2022)
Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League
history in September 2022, when, at 15 years and 181 days old, he
was introduced as a last-minute substitute in Arsenal’s 3-0 away
win at Brentford.
Becoming the first player under 16 years old to play Premier
League football, as well as for Arsenal in any competition, he
shattered the competition record previously set by Harvey Elliott
in May 2019.
Nwaneri – younger than Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – was born in
2007. The Arsenal club record for the youngest player to make their
debut in a competitive fixture was previously held by Cesc Fàbregas
(16 years, 177 days), while he takes over from Jack Wilshere (16
years, 256 days) as the youngest player to play a league match for
the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta showed faith in Nwaneri to step up to the first
team after some impressive performances for the Arsenal under-18
side, and his appearance came just a week after the British record
was broken by Northern Irish schoolboy Christopher Atherton, who
became the youngest senior footballer in the United Kingdom when he
played for Glenavon aged 13 years, 329 days old.
Max Dowman – 15 years, 235 days
old
Arsenal vs Leeds United (23 August 2025)
Max Dowman became the second youngest player to make a Premier
League appearance in Arsenal’s win over Leeds United on 23 August 2025.
After an impressive pre-season, Dowman was given his chance in
Arsenal’s second match of the 2025-26 campaign despite being aged
just 15 years and 235 days old.
Coming on in the 64th minute with Arsenal already 4-0 up, Dowman
won his side a penalty in added time, which Viktor Gyökeres
converted to make the score 5-0.
Jeremy Monga – 15 years, 271
days old
Leicester City vs
Newcastle United (7 April 2025)
It was a night to forget on 7 April 2025 for Leicester City. On
a run of seven consecutive league defeats going into their home
clash with Newcastle, they found themselves 2-0 down by the 12th
minute, and 3-0 behind by half-time, with the added salt in the
wounds of former player Harvey Barnes scoring the third.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side had also passed the 12-hour mark
since they had last scored a league goal. They were staring Premier
League relegation in the face.
One moment that caused a rare bit of joy for the home fans was
seeing the introduction of 15-year-old academy talent Jeremy Monga,
who came on in rather difficult circumstances to say the least for
the Foxes in the 74th minute at the King Power Stadium, replacing
Bilal El Khannouss.
Monga, a winger, was unable to make much impact as Leicester
suffered another demoralising loss, but he did become the second
youngest player in Premier League history. Every cloud, and all
that.
Harvey
Elliott – 16 years, 30 days old
Fulham vs Wolves (4 May 2019)
Harvey Elliott became the youngest Premier League player to make
an appearance in May 2019 when he came on as an 88th-minute
substitute during Fulham’s 1-0 away defeat to Wolves at Molineux
Stadium – a record that was broken in September 2022 by Arsenal’s
Ethan Nwaneri.
Now a fully established Premier League player, Elliott
was only 16 years and 30 days old on the day of his first
appearance, but Fulham boss Scott Parker decided that he was worthy
of a place in the matchday squad for the already-relegated
side.
Just under three months after making this appearance, Elliott
signed for Liverpool for an undisclosed fee and made his league
debut for the Reds in their 2-0 win over Sheffield United in
January 2020 as a 90th-minute sub. In doing so, he became the
second-youngest player to play for Liverpool in the Premier League
(16y 273d) after Jack Robinson in May 2010.
The English youngster finally made his first Premier League
start on the second weekend of the 2021-22 season, during
Liverpool’s win over Burnley.
Matthew
Briggs – 16 years, 68 days old
Fulham vs Middlesbrough (13 May 13
2007)
Upon entering the pitch during Fulham’s 3-1 Premier League away
defeat to Middlesbrough on the final day of the 2006-07 season,
Matthew Briggs became the youngest player to make an appearance in
the competition at 16 years, 68 days old. That record has since
been broken, but it stood for 12 years until Elliott’s appearance in May
2019.
He had to wait over three years longer to get his first Premier
League start – and his next appearance in the competition – in
Fulham’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Left-back Briggs
went on to play 13 times in the Premier League across five
different seasons – all for Fulham – but spent most of his time at
the club out on loan before eventually dropping down the leagues
for regular playing time.
Isaiah Brown – 16 years, 117
days
West Brom vs Wigan (4 May
2013)
Big things were expected of midfielder Izzy Brown following his
Premier League debut at just 16 years old in May 2013. This game
for West Bromwich Albion in a 3-2 home defeat to Wigan was his only
league appearance for the Baggies before he made a move to Chelsea
just months later.
He would go on to make just one Premier League appearance in his
eight years at Chelsea, but did appear 13 times for Brighton in the
competition in 2017-18 while on one of his many loan deals from the
Blues. Brown made more appearances in the Dutch top flight (22)
while on loan at Vitesse from Chelsea in 2015-16 than he ever did
in the Premier League.
On 6 April 2023, Brown was forced to announce his retirement
from professional football, due to recurrent injury problems.
Aaron Lennon – 16 years, 129 days
old
Leeds United vs Tottenham (23 August
2003)
Aaron Lennon went on to make the most appearances in the Premier
League of the 10 youngest players, finishing his career on 416
games.
Lennon’s first appearance in August 2003 came for boyhood club
Leeds United against the team he’d go on to make the most
appearances for in the Premier League: Spurs (266). At 16 years,
129 days old, it was a Premier League record at the time, but has
since been overtaken many times. However, Lennon remains the youngest player in Premier League history to assist a goal,
which came in his eighth appearance in the competition against
Arsenal in November 2003 at the age of 16 years, 199 days.
The former Tottenham Hotspur winger remains one of only 12
players to have scored a Premier League goal as a child and as an
adult.
Jose
Baxter – 16 years, 191 days old
Everton vs Blackburn (16 August
2008)
If you were asked to guess Everton’s youngest ever Premier
League debutant, Wayne Rooney would probably be first to come to
mind, but you’d be wrong.
You’d also be wrong to guess James Vaughan, with the former
Toffee still the youngest scorer in Premier League history at 16
years, 270 days. Not many of you would guess Jose Baxter.
Baxter was just 16 years, 191 days old when he debuted against
Blackburn Rovers in August 2008 – 79 days younger than Vaughan and
106 days younger than Rooney on their Premier League debuts for
Everton.
Baxter went on to make three top-flight appearances in the
opening month of the 2008-09, but then only made four more
subsequently and never appeared in the competition outside his
teenage years.
Joél
Drakes-Thomas – 16 years, 194 days old
Crystal Palace vs Leeds
United (20 December 2025)
Joél Drakes-Thomas became the youngest player to play for
Crystal Palace in the Premier League in December 2025, making his
debut as an 86th-minute substitute in a 4-1 defeat at Leeds
United.
A product of the Palace academy having been with the club since
he was six years old, Drakes-Thomas was only three years old when
the Eagles won promotion back to the Premier League in 2012-13.
Rushian
Hepburn-Murphy – 16 years, 198 days old
Aston Villa vs Sunderland
(14 March 2015)
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy made his Premier League debut for Aston
Villa in March 2015 as an 83rd-minute substitute during their 4-0
win over Sunderland. With this appearance, he became the
second-youngest player to appear for Aston Villa in league
competition behind only Jimmy Brown (15 years, 349 days) back in
September 1969. His appearance came as a replacement for striker
Christian Benteke but, unfortunately for Villa, he wasn’t able to
replicate the Belgian’s feats for the club.
He made just one more Premier League appearance for Villa, over
a year later in May 2016 against Newcastle before their relegation
to the Championship, where he played 10 more times in league
competition ahead of his release in the summer of 2020.
Gary McSheffrey – 16 years, 198 days
old
Coventry City vs Aston Villa (27 February
1999)
Gary McSheffrey is the joint-ninth-youngest player to ever make
their debut in the Premier League, at the same age as Rushian
Hepburn-Murphy. The forward appeared in Coventry City’s 4-1 win
over Aston Villa in February 1999 at the age of 16 years, 198 days
old as an 89th-minute substitute.
This match was also the last time that a side named a full
starting XI of English players, with Aston Villa’s John Gregory
selecting 11 Englishmen – a tactic that clearly didn’t work well
considering the heavy defeat, and something that hasn’t been
repeated in the Premier League since.
McSheffrey didn’t score in any of his four Premier League
appearances for Coventry as a teenager, but eventually netted his
maiden goal in the competition nearly nine years later for
Birmingham City at Spurs in a 3-2 victory for the Blues. He went on
to only score two more times in the Premier League – versus
Middlesbrough and Man City – across 41 top-flight appearances in
England.
Enjoy this? Subscribe
to our new football
newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should
also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
