David Raya is clear when asked to weigh the merits of two teenage prospects he has seen closely. The Arsenal goalkeeper declined to pit Max Dowman against Lamine Yamal and instead highlighted the simple joy both players show when they take the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re alike in that every time they step on the pitch they enjoy playing and are always playing with a smile,\u201d Raya told ESPN. \u201cIt seems like they\u2019re playing at school. They go out there to play and to enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that they want to compete and help the team, but that naturalness to play football at that age\u2014to the calibre they\u2019re playing at\u2014is incredible. They do it with an incredible abandon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The context is striking. At 15 years old Dowman became the youngest ever Champions League debutant, moving Yamal to third on that list. Yamal, Barcelona\u2019s No. 10, has had a rapid rise and broke numerous records before turning 18 this summer. Yamal is three years older than Dowman.<\/p>\n
Dowman has made five senior appearances for Mikel Arteta\u2019s side. Rules around his age also restrict his use of the senior dressing room; he is not allowed to use the same dressing room as the rest of his senior teammates unless it is during team-talks. Raya said those constraints do not hide what the youngster shows on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t share that much in the dressing room because he’s not allowed with the rules and everything,\u201d Raya said . \u201dBut sharing the pitch is the maturity that he shows on the pitch, the willingness that he has just to enjoy and to be himself, to take on players, and always with a smile on his face is incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been training with us since he was 14-years-old, so very impressed with him and his quality as a player. He’s 15, he’s turning 16 at the end of the year. He\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raya\u2019s comments echo his words on Yamal after Spain\u2019s 2024 Euros success: \u201cWe know he\u2019s [Yamal] touched by a magic wand,\u201d Raya said . “He\u2019s a genius at what he does with 17 years, even 16. We need to leave them [comparisons] aside and let him enjoy his football. He\u2019s very young, he must settle down little by little.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raya refuses to rank Max Dowman and Lamine Yamal, praising their joy and maturity on the pitch. rare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1047,1019],"class_list":["post-4450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-champions-league","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}