Max Dowman is already rewriting the record books — and he has not yet sat his GCSEs. The Arsenal midfielder becomes the youngest player in Premier League history to win a top-flight title after Manchester City's draw at Bournemouth on Tuesday confirmed the Gunners' first league championship in 22 years.
Dowman will be 16 years and 144 days old on Sunday when Arsenal lift the trophy on the final day of the campaign, smashing the previous record held by Phil Foden. The Manchester City academy product was 17 years and 350 days old when he collected his first Premier League winners' medal back in 2017-18 — a full 21 months older than Dowman is now.
A season of broken records
This is not Dowman's first brush with the history books this season. He announced himself to the football world in August 2025 when, at just 15 years and 235 days old, he became the youngest player ever to appear in a Premier League fixture. Three months later, in November 2025, he surpassed that landmark on the continental stage, becoming the Champions League's youngest ever participant at 15 years and 308 days.
Then, in March, came perhaps his most dramatic moment yet. Coming off the bench at the Emirates, Dowman slotted home a late goal to seal a 2-0 win against Everton, claiming the record as the Premier League's youngest ever scorer at 16 years and 73 days. The stadium erupted. The record-breaking had become almost routine.
Qualifying for his medal
To receive one of the 40 medals distributed to Premier League champions, a player must make a minimum of five league appearances. Dowman has managed exactly five, all as a substitute. He qualifies — just — and will stand on that podium alongside teammates who, in many cases, are old enough to be his parents.
The list of youngest title winners he now heads is a who's who of genuine Premier League talent. Behind Foden in second place sit Rico Lewis and Brahim Diaz, both former City prospects, followed by Arsenal's own Gael Clichy from the famous Invincibles side of 2003-04 and Manchester United's Rafael da Silva from 2008-09. Nicolas Anelka, another Gunner, sits seventh on the list at 19 years and 57 days — three full years older than Dowman is today.
Part of something historic
Arsenal's title success ends a 22-year wait stretching back to that unbeaten 2003-04 campaign. It is a moment the club's supporters have spent two decades dreaming about, and at the centre of it — improbably, astonishingly — is a teenager who was not even born when Thierry Henry last lifted a league trophy in red and white.
The noises out of the Arsenal camp suggest Dowman has been handled with considerable care this season, his appearances managed meticulously to protect a talent widely regarded as generational. He has featured in 12 matches across all competitions, each one adding another layer to a story that the football world is only beginning to tell.
Whatever Sunday's celebrations bring — and the scenes at the Emirates are set to be extraordinary — Dowman will savour a winners' medal that is his by every right. Youngest Premier League player. Youngest Champions League player. Youngest Premier League scorer. Youngest Premier League title winner. All before his seventeenth birthday. Not a bad start.
Frequently asked
- How old is Max Dowman?
- Max Dowman is 16 years old. He will be 16 years and 144 days old on the final day of the 2025-26 Premier League season, making him the youngest title winner in the competition's history.
- When did Arsenal last win the Premier League?
- Arsenal's last Premier League title before 2025-26 was in 2003-04, when they completed the entire season unbeaten — a side famously known as the Invincibles.
- Whose record did Max Dowman break as youngest Premier League title winner?
- Dowman broke the record previously held by Phil Foden, who was 17 years and 350 days old when he won the Premier League with Manchester City in the 2017-18 season.