'His passing style' - PL youngest debutant Nwaneri picks Man City star as his idol growing up

Arsenal wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri has revealed that Manchester City's attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was his idol growing up. 

Although the England youth international of Nigerian descent has not been officially promoted to the first team ahead of the 2024-2025 season, he has been training with the senior players since the start of pre-season preparations. 

Nwaneri was given minutes in high profile pre-season friendlies against Manchester United, Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, and was also in action against Bournemouth and Lyon.

Despite being a product of Arsenal's Hale End Academy which produced talented attacking midfielders such as Jack Wilshere, Emile Smith Rowe and Nathan Tella, Nwaneri admitted that he looked up to Kevin De Bruyne.

Since joining Manchester City in 2015, Belgium international De Bruyne has been in a class of his own when it comes to providing assists, having set up his teammates 112 times. 

Similar to his role model De Bruyne, Nwaneri has the ability to play as a second striker, out wide or in the heart of the midfield.

When asked by Martin Ødegaard who he looked up to growing up, Nwaneri told Arsenal's official webpage: "Growing up, my idol was definitely De Bruyne. The way that he plays, his passing style, when I was younger I try to copy what he was doing."

Aged 15 years and 181 days, Nwaneri became the youngest player to debut in the top flight of English football after coming off the bench to replace Fabio Vieira in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Brentford in September 2022.

On how he found it when he played his first senior game for the Gunners, Nwaneri said: "They were crazy emotions; I didn't know what to think at the time. I was just shocked that I even came on really but it was a lot to deal with at the time and I think I dealt with it well.

"No, I didn't know before the game at all what was going to happen. It was last minute, I got called to be on the bench and then when I came on, I was even more surprised."

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

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