Arsenal legend sends Max Dowman World Cup message amid call-up clamour

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Evening Standard

·25 mars 2026

Arsenal legend sends Max Dowman World Cup message amid call-up clamour

Youngster has been tipped for senior bow after hitting first Premier League goal in March

Theo Walcott has urged Arsenal wonderkid Max Dowman not to accept a World Cup call-up should Thomas Tuchel ask him to play for England.

The 16-year-old forward is enjoying a breakout campaign under Mikel Arteta and scored his first Premier League goal in a 2-0 defeat of Everton earlier this month.

He has been called upon as a late-game substitute to inspire Arsenal in tight ties, leading many to suggest that Tuchel should name him to England’s squad for this summer’s World Cup as a potential game-changer.

Dowman’s name was not among the 35 called up for the March international break, England’s final training camp of the season, suggesting he is not in line for a call-up despite Tuchel refusing to rule out the possibility.

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Dowman is instead spending this week with the Three Lions’ Under-19s in Portugal.

Should the call come, though, Walcott hopes Dowman will keep his feet on the ground and turn down the opportunity, citing his own experience as a youngster on the global stage.

"I hope he [Dowman] doesn't go,” he told the Daily Mirror. “I don't mean it in a horrible way because if I could go back in time, I would change things.”

Max Dowman has featured regularly in England’s youth ranks but Theo Walcott does not want to see him play at the World Cup

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The Arsenal and Everton legend was referring to his own call-up to Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad for the 2006 World Cup, which came when he was just 17 years old, before he had made a senior appearance for the Gunners.

He continued: "I would say to myself: 'No, no, don't do it' but then try telling that to a 17-year-old! I do still see him and me differently as he's playing in the Premier League, but he needs to grow at his own pace, especially on the emotional side because he's a young adult.

"I had to grow up very fast but this team is still young and not as experienced. He's being protected, which is important, whereas I had to get thrown in to talk to you lot!

"In time he will go, yes, but I don't think this is the time and I think there are better players who arguably deserve to be there ahead of him.

"He will eventually get there but England have wide players doing really well, there's Bukayo [Saka], [Noni] Madueke, Jarrod Bowen and Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes on the other side."