Scholes makes extraordinary claim over who Arsenal star Dowman should be picked over for England | OneFootball

Paul Scholes insists Thomas Tuchel should take “unbelievable” Arsenal star Max Dowman to the World Cup and made a shock claim over whom he should be selected over.

16-year-old Dowman became the youngest-ever Premier League goalscorer after his dramatic late runaway goal for the Gunners against Everton in their last Premier League fixture and also became the youngest player ever to appear in a Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.

Rio Ferdinand believes the teenager could be “massively key” for Mikel Arteta in the title race and Scholes is adamant he should go to the World Cup and reckons Tuchel is “the type of manager who might take him”.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Scholes, who earned 66 England caps, said: “How good is Max Dowman? He’s unbelievable.

“Do you think he should be in the England squad for the World Cup? Look at Spain with Lamine Yamal… get him in!

“We’ve not got a player like Dowman. I think Thomas Tuchel is the type of manager who might take him. Did you see his goals for the England U20s?”

Tuchel has abundance of quality forward options to choose from with Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Anthony Gordon, Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers among the star names in contention.

Asked who Dowman should be picked ahead of, Scholes added: “Anyone, I don’t care. I think he’s brilliant. Spain would do it and Spain are successful.

“I would take him all day long, I don’t think there’s an English player with the ability he’s got. He floats past people.”

Rio Ferdinand also believes Tuchel should select Dowman for his England squad this summer.

He said: “I think he has to go [to the World Cup]. I think he’s special.

“He’s doing the same thing he did through every age group in the Premier League against grown men. He’s been doing the same thing in training against Arsenal players who are top of the Premier League.

“Even the players there are going ‘wow’, even the manager is saying he’s not seen anything like this from a player so young. It’s crazy.

“Those talents have to go – Michael Owen went to the World Cup young and blew up the whole world. You have to give these talents the experience and even if he went there and didn’t play it would be useful for him to get used to the environment and playing at a tournament.

“That would be hugely valuable; we’ve seen players do that before and benefit from it. I didn’t play a minute at the 1998 World Cup but that experience really helped at the 2002 tournament.

“I would love to see him go – it would be so exciting for English football. I would 100% take him – look at Spain with Lamine Yamal, I’m not comparing them but they saw a special talent and took him and then he blew everyone’s socks off.”