Liverpool wonderkid Rio Ngumoha became the Premier League’s fourth all-time youngest goalscorer with his dramatic late winner against Newcastle, but will Arsenal‘s 15-year-old prodigy Max Dowman claim the record outright?
Ngumoha became only the fourth 16-year-old to score a Premier League goal, and the second to score a match-winner – after Wayne Rooney’s iconic, unforgettable strike against Arsenal way back in 2002.
But Dowman has time on his side to break the record. We’ve broken down the numbers behind the record chase.
What is the current record?
Wayne Rooney and James Milner are two of the top three.
Those legendary names are good omens for Ngumoha and Dowman’s futures, given all they’ve achieved in the game.
Rooney is Manchester United’s all-time top goalscorer, and third in the Premier League’s scoring charts, while Milner has won everything there is to win and is closing in on Gareth Barry’s appearance record.
But the player who holds the record, and has done so for over 20 years, is lesser-known – James Vaughan.
The striker was 16 years and 270 days old when he scored for Everton against Crystal Palace in April 2005.
Eighty-six days younger than the previous record holder, Milner, who scored the first of his 55 Premier League goals for boyhood club Leeds United against Sunderland on Boxing Day 2002.
“I came on, clattered one of the centre halves and got a telling off from Uriah Rennie,” Vaughan reminisced in an interview with The Athletic.
“He shouted at me like my dad and I said, ‘Sorry’. Then I smashed someone else and he was like ‘You’re on your last warning’.
“The goal was an incredible feeling but I didn’t realise I’d broken any records at first. My mum and dad were there.
“They’d be at every game from youth level up and we just went home afterwards but I’ll always remember the gaffer said to me: ‘Keep out of the way for the next few weeks because people will be bothering you. Just come to training and go back’.”
Vaughan only scored six more Premier League goals in a further 50 appearances and went on to spend most of his career lower down the footballing pyramid.
How long does Max Dowman have to break the record?
At the time of writing, Dowman is 15 years old and 238 days old.
He doesn’t start Year 11 until next week, with his GCSEs to come next summer, while No.1 when he was born was Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ after a viral anti-X Factor social media campaign.
You feel sickeningly old right now, don’t you?
In other words, Dowman has over a year to break the record. As long as he scores his first Premier League goal in the 2025-26 season, the record will be his. He’ll also have up to October and the opening weeks of next season.
Breaking the record is still far from guaranteed, though. Dowman’s Gunners team-mate Ethan Nwaneri still holds the record for the Premier League’s youngest debutant at 15 years and 181 days old, 54 days younger than Dowman.
But Mikel Arteta used Nwaneri sparingly at first. He only made one further Premier League appearance over the following two years, and was 17 years and 247 days old when he scored his first league goal in November 2025.
We’d be very surprised if Dowman sees so little action in the year ahead, though. He was a revelation in pre-season and showed that he’s already more than capable of contributing to the first team in his dazzling debut cameo against Leeds United.
Not only did he win the penalty for Arsenal’s fifth, but in just 26 minutes he notched two attempts at Leeds’ goal. You suspect it won’t take him long at all to break his duck if he gets the minutes.
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