What the Champions League rules say about Max Dowman being able to play for Arsenal aged 15

Playing Champions League football would be the obvious next step for Arsenal’s teenage sensation Max Dowman.

The 15 year old playmaker is behind only fellow Gunner Ethan Nwaneri as the youngest player ever to appear in the Premier League following his top-flight debut against Leeds last month.

That was close to the earliest Mikel Arteta could possibly have included Dowman in a Premier League game, with players only permitted to appear if they are 15 by the end of the month in which a particular campaign begins – which meant he was unable to play in the competition last year despite training regularly with the first team. But what do the Champions League rules say?

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Can Max Dowman play for Arsenal in the Champions League?

Unlike the Premier League, there is no minimum age for players in the Champions League.

The record for the youngest player to make a Champions League appearance is held by Youssoufa Moukoko, who was 16 years and 18 days old when he appeared for Borussia Dortmund against Zenit St Petersburg in December 2020.

Max Dowman comes onto the pitch in place of Bukayo Saka (Image credit: Getty Images)

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is meanwhile the youngest player ever to start a Champions League game, doing so against Porto in October 2023 at just 16 years and 83 days old.

Yamal is also the youngest player ever to appear in a knockout game; he was 16 years and 223 days old when he turned out against Napoli four months later.

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Born on December 31 2009, Dowman would break Moukoko’s record if he were to make an appearance in any of Arsenal’s first six league phase games.

He has a bit longer to break Yamal’s record for youngest player to start a game, and would be guaranteed to set a new record for the knockout stages if he were to appear for Arsenal at any stage beyond the league phase.

Max Dowman gets an arm around the shoulder from Declan Rice (Image credit: Getty Images)

One catch is that Arsenal would need to have registered Dowman as a senior player due to a technicality in the way youth players are classified by UEFA.

Clubs need to register 25 players on ‘list A’ before the competition gets under way – the deadline was midnight on Tuesday night (September 2 into September 3), but as of time of writing, Arsenal have not yet released their list.

An unlimited number of players born on or after 1 January 2004 can also be included on ‘list B’, and clubs can continuously add players to that list throughout the Champions League campaign.

However, the catch is that to qualify for list B, a player must have have been eligible to have played for the club for at least two years since their 15th birthday; Dowman is less than a year on from his 15th birthday.