Wayne Rooney has praised Max Dowman’s impact after the Arsenal winger became the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer – but wonders if the 16-year-old might need to focus on his GCSEs over the closing weeks of the season.
The teenager scored in a 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday that helped the Gunners move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Rooney was once the Premier League’s youngest scorer when he netted for Everton against Arsenal in 2002, and he went on to become an England great.
He can appreciate how Dowman is facing a balancing act between his flourishing football career and exam preparation.
“He has got his GCSEs, and his education, I’m sure for him and his family, is important as well,” Rooney said on The Wayne Rooney Show.
“What an opportunity for him to be around the squad. He could be a Premier League winner when he’s still finishing school off.
“He’s got an aura and a belief about him and it was the same against Everton. If it’s education first, I don’t think we’ll see much of him over the next few weeks.”
Rooney added: “He won’t be in as much as he’d probably like, but then you’ve got many years ahead of you.”
Rooney says he was on £75 a week before turning professional – and borrowing money from his parents – when he scored against the Gunners aged 16.
“I was back out playing with my mates on the streets when I scored after the game,” he said.
But times have changed.
“Now we’re in social media,” Rooney said. “People will be messaging, Instagram or Twitter, whatever he’s got. And you’ll be seeing it everywhere.
“So I don’t think he will have slept many hours [on Saturday night] because I’m sure he will have been up watching it.
“It’s different now, a different age when I was coming through. There was no social media at that time.
“So it was all about the newspapers and whether you liked it or not – front page and back page. I think the scrutiny’s not on you as much maybe these days.”
Rooney also praised Dowman’s attitude.
“He seems, from the games I’ve watched, to not let that pressure affect him because he gets the ball, he holds on to it, he commits defenders, he goes to take them on, and so he definitely looks like he’s got a confidence about him,” Rooney said.
“Mikel Arteta, some of the senior players in the Arsenal squad, will not let him get ahead of himself. But I think you have to enjoy it as well.
“Sometimes people think that enjoying success is arrogant and I just think they do it in the [USA]. They enjoy it and they celebrate it.
“So when we’ve got a young lad like that coming through as a 16-year-old, he’s clearly got a lot of ability and you just hope he can go and fulfil that potential.
“Let him enjoy it and go and express himself.”