Boyhood Gooner Ethan Nwaneri Reveals His Favourite Player Growing Up

By The Editor
on 23rd January 2024

Ethan Nwaneri is living the dream…

Arsenal starlet Ethan Nwaneri stated that he’s currently living his dream as a boyhood Gooner and revealed that being coached by his favourite player growing up in Jack Wilshere left him speechless, the 16-year-old told Arsenal Media.

Nwaneri, who was given his first-team debut during a Premier League game at Brentford last season, has been playing in the development squads since that moment.

The England youth international was part of the squad that crashed out of the Youth Cup in a 7-1 drubbing against Liverpool last week, a game which was under Wilshere’s tutelage.

The former Arsenal playmaker doesn’t see much of Nwaneri these days with the highly-rated teenager training with the first team before playing for the U21 side.

Nwaneri was selected to travel with the senior squad to Dubai for our recent warm-weather training camp and the Hale End star admitted that he can’t quite believe where his embryonic career has taken him.

“Growing up as a Gooner, it was always a dream of mine to play for this club. I grew up near to the stadium in Islington and all of my family are Arsenal fans too,” Nwaneri was quoted as saying.

” I moved around at Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham, but then I signed for Arsenal when I was nine and from there, I’ve progressed through the pathway and loved every minute of it.

“Jack Wilshere was always my favourite player growing up, so it’s kind of crazy to think that he’s my under-18s coach now. I couldn’t believe it when I found out and if I’m being completely honest, I was actually quite starstruck in the first few training sessions!”

A certain section of Arsenal fans have been slightly disappointed that Nwaneri – or any other highly-rated starlet – hasn’t made a first-team appearance this season.

With the club no longer involved in the domestic cup competitions, it will be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby Mikel Arteta can hand minutes to inexperienced players.

When you’re competing at the top of the Premier League and in the knockout stages of the Champions League, throwing in teenagers would neither be sensible nor fair.