Max Dowman set to crush 31-year Champions League record with Arsenal tipped for title | OneFootball

Max Dowman will smash the record for the youngest Champions League winner if Arsenal are crowned European champions for the first time in May.

This obviously hinges on Arsenal winning this season’s Champions League, but Dowman does have another two years in which to fall back if Mikel Arteta’s side come up short this year or next.

At 16 years and 73 days old, Dowman became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history with his dramatic injury-time finish against Everton, breaking the record held by Arteta’s former Toffees teammate, James Vaughan.

Arteta was on the pitch and also scored on the day Vaughan set the 20-year record, and there is no limit to the history Dowman could make under the Spaniard’s stewardship.

The Arsenal manager has called on the media to help temper expectations and pressure on the teenager, but there is no avoiding the records in Dowman’s sights, with Champions League history potentially being made in 2025-26.

No 17-year-old has a Champions League winners’ medal, let alone someone as young as 16, giving Dowman the opportunity to do something very special.

To qualify for a medal, the winners of Europe’s premier competition can decide if you are worthy; there are no minutes-played or appearance requirements.

Given Dowman’s inclusion in five Champions League matchday squads, including the 2024-25 last-16 first leg against Bayer Leverkusen, he would be poised to make the squad should Arsenal reach the final on May 30.

Dowman actually missed three games through injury, not because of Arteta’s selection, and has featured in three Premier League matches this campaign, including the Anfield defeat against Liverpool back in August.

When given significant minutes in the top flight, the young winger has made an impact – obviously scoring against Everton, but also winning a penalty on matchday two against Leeds United.

He is a special boy. Arsenal are a special team. As favourites for the Champions League, odds are that Dowman will become the youngest winner of the competition, smashing a record that has stood for more than three decades.

Incidentally, the current record holder is former Gunners forward Nwankwo Kanu, who earned a medal with Ajax back in 1995 when he was 18 years and 296 days old. That gives Dowman plenty of breathing room, considering he will be 16 years and 150 days old when this year’s final rolls around.

Ajax had three of the five youngest UCL winners in the squad that beat AC Milan 31 years ago. Kanu is joined by Patrick Kluivert (18y, 327d) and Clarence Seedorf (19y, 53d).

Kluivert is the second-youngest, while Seedorf sits fifth. Sandwiched in between them are Iker Casillas (19y, 4d), comfortably the youngest starting goalkeeper to win the UCL, and Senny Mayulu (19y, 14d), who won the trophy with Paris Saint-Germain in 2024-25.