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10 Youngest Premier League Players of All Time

youngest premier league player

Who are the youngest Premier League players of all time? Many young lads grow up with the dreams of becoming a professional football player. To play a game in the league is one thing. To earn your debut at an age that you’re still in school is another.

Youngest Premier League Players

Football players can earn their first professional contract once they hit the age of 17 years old. For special wonderkids, they’ve earned their debut before their 17th birthday. Let’s take a look at who the 10 youngest Premier League players of all time are.

10. Jack Robinson (16 years, 250 days)

Jack Robinson remains Liverpool’s youngest Premier League player of all time. His debut came in a draw against Hull City in May 2010 in the final game of the season. His debut was in Rafael Benitez’s last game in charge of Liverpool.

Robinson played at centre-back and he ultimately left Liverpool in 2014 making only 10 appearances. He made another 17 Premier League appearances for Sheffield United between 2019 and 2021.

9. Reece Oxford (16 years, 236 days)

Reece Oxford became West Ham’s youngest Premier League player ever after he made his debut in the London derby against Arsenal in August 2015.

Oxford not only started the game against Arsenal – he was sensationally named Man of the Match in his 79-minute performance from midfield which The Hammers went on to win 2-0.

Oxford went on to make a few more appearances for West Ham, before loan spells at Reading and Borussia Monchengladbach. The Englishman eventually went out on loan to Bundesliga side Augsburg where he settled into a starting centre-back role.

8. Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (16 years, 198 days)

Rushian Hepburn-Murphy made a seven minute cameo in his Premier League debut for Aston Villa in March 2015 during a 4-0 win against Sunderland. He replaced fellow striker Christian Benteke to become one of the youngest Premier League players ever.

Unfortunately for Hepburn-Murphy he wasn’t able to lockdown a starting role at the club. Following spells in the lower divisions, he found his way to Cypriot club Pafos in 2020, before returning back to England.

7. Gary McSheffrey (16 years, 198 days)

Gary McSheffrey was exactly the same age as Rushian Hepburn-Murphy when he made his debut for Coventry City in their 4-1 win over Aston Villa in February 1999, coming on as an 89th-minute substitute.

It was a historic game, with the Aston Villa team the the last Premier League team to field an all-English starting XI.

McSheffrey would make just four appearances for Coventry in the Premier League, with the rest of his appearances for the club being in the English Championship. He would leave for Chesterfield in 2013 and would play the rest of his career in the lower levels of the Football League.

6. Jose Baxter (16 years, 191 days)

A 16-year-old Jose Baxter debuted for Everton in the final 11 minutes of their Premier League clash with Blackburn in 2008. Everton would go on to lose 3-2, but Baxter remains Everton’s youngest Premier League player ever.

Baxter edged out James Vaughan (16 years, 270 days), who is the youngest scorer in Premier League history, as well as legend Wayne Rooney by 106 days. He would go on to make just a handful of appearances in the Premier League before retiring at the age of 29.

5. Aaron Lennon (16 years, 129 days)

Aaron Lennon first made his mark in the English Premier League for his boyhood club Leeds United. He made his debut against the team he would later go on to make the most appearances for, Tottenham.

It was in August of 2003 when Lennon came on as a 77th-minute substitute, becoming one of the youngest Premier League players ever at the age of 16 years and 129 days.

Lennon signed for Tottenham in the summer of 2005 and spent 10 years at the club. He made a total of 416 Premier League appearances. Although he isn’t the youngest Premier League player of all time, he is the youngest to provide an assist, doing so at 16 years and 199 days old.

4. Izzy Brown (16 years, 117 days)

At just 16 years and 117 days of age, midfielder West Bromwich Albion forward Izzy Brown made his debut for West Bromwich Albion as a substitute in May 2013. The 3-2 home defeat to Wigan Athletic was his only league appearance for the Baggies.

Brown would sign for Chelsea only a few months after becoming one of the youngest Premier League players of all time. He went on to make just one Premier League appearance in his eight years at Chelsea.

Despite being capped 36 times for England at youth level, most of his career has been spent in the lower tiers of English football.

3. Matthew Briggs (16 years, 68 days)

On the Final day of the 2006/2007 season, Matthew Briggs took to the pitch for Fulham in their 3-1 away defeat to Middlesbrough to become the youngest Premier League player at the time.

It was a record that stood for 12 years until it was broken in May 2019. Briggs would sit for his GCSE exams just 24 hours after making his debut.

Briggs made just 14 appearances in the Premier League. Most of his time at Fulham was spent out on loan. Interestingly, Briggs was capped 45 times for England and youth level, before making the switch to the Guyanese national team thanks to his fathers heritage.

2. Harvey Elliott (16 years, 30 days)

In May of 2019, Fulham’s Harvey Elliott became the youngest Premier League player in history at the time when he came on as an 88th-minute substitute against Wolves at Molineux Stadium.

With Fulham already relegated from the EPL, Elliot was given a spot in the matchday squad with the winger becoming a last minute substitute.

Elliott signed for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool after the season and since 2019, has fast become one of the most promising young players in the Premier League.

1. Ethan Nwaneri (15 years 181 days)

Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest Premier League player of all time as a last minute substitute on the 19th of September 2022.  He took the pitch at 15 years and 181 days in Arsenal’s 3-0 away win at Brentford.

Nwaneri smashed Harvey Elliott’s record which was set four months earlier and became the only player under 16 years old to ever appear in the Premier League. He’s so young he’s still on a schoolboy contract and isn’t old enough for a professional deal.

Born in 2007, Nwaneri rose through Arsenal’s academy ranks showing his ability at the Under-18 level as a 14 year old, which saw him promoted to Under-21s.

The wonderkid is already showing a great tactical understanding at such a young age with a combination of pace, technique and power way beyond his years.

Matt Ieriko

Matt Ieriko is a freelance writer who’s evolved his lifelong passion for sport into the creation of WolfgangSport.com in 2020 – an American sports blog covering the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS and more. As an Australian, he’s always been fascinated with the cultural differences and global significance of sports in America.

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