Thierry Henry has urged restraint from supporters after Max Dowman\u2019s record goal, saying the teenager must be handled carefully if his potential is to be realised. Henry made his comments on Sky Sports Monday Night Football following the moment that prompted widespread reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had goosebumps, I\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d Henry said. \u201cI don\u2019t often get goosebumps watching a game, but I had goosebumps because I remember my first goal, my first moment. Even if you are not an Arsenal fan, at the particular moment I think everyone could relate and was happy for him and put the Arsenal thing on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n
The programme also revisited the context of the Premier League youngest goalscorer mark. Wayne Rooney was a previous holder of the Premier League\u2019s youngest goalscorer crown, having scored a stunner against Arsenal in 2002. This week, the retired legend revealed that his weekly salary at the time was just $100 because he was too young to even sign a professional contract. Rooney later went on to become one of the greatest players in English soccer history, winning numerous trophies, captaining Manchester United, the England national and breaking decades-old goalscoring records for both.<\/p>\n
Henry used those contrasting career trajectories to make a plea for perspective. He pointed to examples of players who fulfilled early promise and those whose careers were curtailed by circumstance. One such case was Vaughan, who came from the same Everton academy as others mentioned on the show; Vaughan made only 52 Premier League appearances in a career limited by injuries and finished in League Two in 2021. The best season of his career was a 24-goal campaign for Bury in League One in 2016\u201317.<\/p>\n
If Dowman is to follow in Rooney\u2019s footsteps and realise the superstar potential that has been apparent for years now, Henry challenged fans to be patient and protect the teenager at this early stage of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thierry Henry: protect Max Dowman after record goal. Rooney’s rise and Vaughan’s decline warning. NB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1446,1484],"class_list":["post-8856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-academy","tag-appearance-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8856","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=8856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}