{"id":2620,"date":"2026-04-14T19:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:40:42","slug":"declan-rice-makes-bold-max-dowman-statement-every-arsenal-fan-will-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2620","title":{"rendered":"Declan Rice makes bold Max Dowman statement every Arsenal fan will love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>At a Glance<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Declan Rice was asked about whether he was as good as Arsenal gem Max Dowman at 16 years of age.<\/li>\n<li>Rice broke down how good he was as a teenager at West Ham.<\/li>\n<li>Rice revealed whether Dowman is better than every youngster he came across as a youth player at Chelsea.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p><strong>Max Dowman is one of several highly-rated young players Declan Rice has played throughout his career<\/strong> <strong>at club and international level<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>At Arsenal alone, the former West Ham United captain has also trained and played alongside prodigious youngsters such as Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly as well.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the experience of witnessing the rise of superstars such as Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham means Rice knows a thing or two about what makes a special young player.<\/p>\n<p>Dowman has earned praise from Paul Scholes and several big names in the game as the teenager looks like one of the most naturally gifted players England have produced in years.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Declan Rice admits he was \u2018rubbish\u2019 compared to Max Dowman at 16<\/h2>\n<p>Ahead of Arsenal\u2019s much-awaited clash against Sporting CP in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final, Rice was quizzed about whether he was on his teammate\u2019s level at 16 years of age.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the Europa Conference League winner also made his debut for West Ham as an 18-year-old against Burnley in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>John Terry labelled Dowman as \u201coutstanding\u201d and Rice further exemplified how gifted the Hale End academy graduate is by admitting that he was nowhere near the young attacker\u2019s level at the same age.<\/p>\n<p>The England international told Stadium Astro: \u201cI was rubbish! Compared to him at 16, I was 16, I\u2019d just got my scholarship. I was the only player at West Ham that got offered a scholarship, not a pro contract so seven in my group got offered pro\u2019s, I got a scholarship and obviously, after that, it gave me more motivation to kick on and try and get a pro contract and once I got that first one, I just kept pushing on and on and on and then the mindset was there and the desire to become a footballer was there.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p>\n          <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Declan Rice Admits He Was Rubbish Compared to Max Dowman\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GuxiQmqUSyc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was a good footballer at that age but I was nowhere near what Max is. I think he\u2019s the best I\u2019ve seen at 16.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rice also claimed that despite all the top talent he saw at Chelsea as a youngster, Dowman trumps his former teammates: \u201cBack in the day, when I was at Chelsea, there were a lot of players around who were unbelievable as well but I think Max is probably the best I\u2019ve seen at his age.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Declan Rice reveals Max Dowman\u2019s \u2018special trait\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The 27-year-old also went on to reveal that what is well and truly \u201cspecial\u201d about Dowman is that despite being just 16, he is fearless despite playing at senior level.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p>\n          <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MAX DOWMAN MAKES HISTORY!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4E8cnHjEa3s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYeah, he\u2019s obviously incredible. It\u2019s an eye-opener and you see how good he is. He hasn\u2019t got any fear at all, he just goes into games not even thinking about it, he just goes out and plays football and to have that already at 16, it\u2019s a special trait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs he keeps getting older and he carries that with him, it\u2019s obviously going to standing him in really good stead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rice added: \u201cHe\u2019s obviously such a good kid. But it\u2019s important that we\u2019ve got the right people around him, not forcing him, not rushing him to do anything, just keep pushing him along nicely. England have a real talent on their hands, so we have to take our time with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a Glance: Declan Rice was asked about whether he was as good as Arsenal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}