Ethan Chidiebere Nwaneri (born 21 March 2007) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Nwaneri made his Premier League debut against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

in September 2022, becoming the youngest ever Arsenal player, and the youngest player to appear in the top flight of English football.

Early life

Ethan Chidiebere Nwaneri was born on 21 March 2007 in England and attends St John's Senior School in Enfield. He is of Nigerian descent.

Career

Nwaneri joined

at nine years-old. By the age of 14, he was already playing for their under-18 side. Predominantly, he plays as a midfielder. Nwaneri started the 2022–23 season playing for Arsenal under-18s, but he was quickly advanced to the club's under-21 side. Having made a sole appearance in the 2022–23 Premier League 2, he joined the first team for training in September, and made his first senior matchday squad on 18 September when he was named as a substitute for the

match against

. Coming off the bench to replace Fábio Vieira in second-half stoppage time, he became the youngest player to ever appear in the Premier League – breaking the record previously held by

Harvey Elliott Harvey Daniel James Elliott (born 4 April 2003) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for club Liverpool. Having come up through Fulham's academy, Elliott made his first-team debut for Fulham in September 2 ...

, and the all-time English top-flight record held since August 1964 by former

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

goalkeeper

Derek Forster Derek Forster (19 February 1949 – 2 May 2024) was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He started his career at Manor Park School in Newcastle upon Tyne, and during his time at Manor Park he also played for the England school te ...

, by three days. He also became Arsenal's youngest-ever player in any competition, breaking the previous record of 16 years and 177 days, set by Cesc Fàbregas in the 2003–04 League Cup. In the post-match press conference, manager

Mikel Arteta Mikel Arteta Amatriain (born 26 March 1982) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of club Arsenal. Arteta began his senior career at Barcelona in 1999 but limited playing time led to a loan to Paris ...

explained that they had to name Nwaneri and two other under-21 players on the bench because the first team had several injuries, especially the injury of midfielder and captain Martin Ødegaard, and a "gut feeling" was behind his decision to send Nwaneri on.

Style of play

Nwaneri has been labelled as a player who can operate as a " number 10" but can play every attacking position, with an innate capacity to receive and dribble with the ball at his feet while also contributing defensively. He is comfortable in both wide and central roles.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nwaneri, Ethan 2007 births Living people English footballers Association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Premier League players England youth international footballers Black British sportsmen English sportspeople of Nigerian descent