Dowman is going to be quite a bit younger than Yamal was when he played in this U17 tournament. I think he will be about six months younger in comparison. So, pushing expectations like the above seems excessive even though he is exciting as an option. The only player that I can recall that is entering this tournament at such a young age for England is Nate Chalobah. Who was excellent at the tournament. It is pretty significant that you can be starting for a team with quite a lot of quality in your specific area of the squad whilst being almost two years younger than the eligibility cut off. It was very impressive to see Mfuni play well a year up last season. But he’s about 10 months younger than Dowman will be for this one.
Yamal also was/is extremely physically advanced. The vast majority of youngsters won't be athletically developed enough to be as impactful as he is at 17. Yamal is a bit of an anomaly really; it'll be a long time before we see another 17/18 year old at his level.
It wouldn't surprise me if he did go to the World Cup. I mean Walcott did at 16! I think we have lots of players with the potential of Walcott these days though. I think Horris is right though, Yamal's arc is very rare so probably won't happen with Dowman by the basic law of averages.
It would surprise me if he was in contention for the WC at this point. Not impossible but the trajectory would be quite something. Hopefully we can qualify for the U17 WC and he goes to that. I’m a bit concerned about how we do here. We have a very attacking squad and all the teams I’ve seen so far are physical, direct and counter attacking. We’ve also not really been tested much in qualifying Hoping we just get the win today.
I've only seen highlights of Dowman so i'm no expert. But am I right in thinking he's playing U18 and he's still 15. If that's the case he doesn't look like an average 15 year old. Physically he looks like a 18 year old a bit like Rooney.and as you say Yamal. Also on the Highlights I've seen he doesn't seem to rely on his size its more skill that gets him his goals. Looks talent what ever.
He's about the size of the average u18. I wouldn't say he's like Rooney who was basically a strong man at 16. If you watch him he regularly beats bigger stronger players though. He's quick, has brilliant close control but is also really good at using his body to protect the ball.
Looking at the squads quickly I think we've got the second youngest squad after France too. Both England and France have 9 x 17 year olds but France have 3 x 15 year old players where we have 1. Germany have 14 x 17 year old players and Portugal 15.
Walcott was a year older than Dowman would be and no longer in school, its difficult to imagine Dowman getting more than token minutes next season while he's still in compulsory education. Dowman is so young the first half of next season he'll still be 15, Yamal already turned 16 before the season started. You'd also think Nwaneri would probably get most the minutes they have to share round to the attacking midfield options, particularly given Arteta has a bizarre reluctance to rotate.
He will be sitting his GCSE’s this time next year. While we have had players do their exams at the U17 euros before and are doing so again this year (Ridegon, Gorman, Williams-Barnett, Gray, Bernal, Page and Byfield are all in that cohort) I really don’t see them doing so for a senior player!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c17rez4qq19t England U17’s kick off their European Championship campaign in a group stage clash with Belgium on Tuesday.Watch all the action live from 16:45 BST on @BBCiPlayer, through the red button and on the BBC Sport website and app.— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 20, 2025
Anyone having a problem with the UEFA app? Stream was fine but it’s gone off for me. Says event has ended…..