With his goal off the bench in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in November, Ethan Nwaneri catapulted himself into the Premier League's 10 youngest goalscorers of all time.
Already the youngest player in the competition's history after making his debut aged just 15 years and 181 days, Nwaneri is now also the ninth youngest goalscorer, with his strike against Forest coming when he was 17 years and 247 days old.
The future looks bright for the Arsenal youngster. But what became of the other occupants of the Premier League’s 10 youngest goalscorers list? Ben Bloom investigates...
James Vaughan, 16 years 270 days
Everton (v Crystal Palace, 10 April 2005)
A product of the Everton youth academy, Vaughan scored the final goal in a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace after coming off the bench for his Premier League debut in April 2005.
However, he struggled to nail down a starting spot at his boyhood club, eventually leaving in 2011 after scoring seven league goals from 47 appearances, mainly from the bench.
He signed for Norwich City, newly promoted to the Premier League, but predominantly plied his trade in the Football League, playing for the likes of Huddersfield Town, Birmingham City, Bury, Sunderland, Wigan Athletic, Bradford City and Tranmere Rovers.
Having called time on his playing career in 2021, Vaughan became sporting director at Tranmere before returning to Everton to serve as their loans pathway manager.
Last year, he was appointed as the club’s head of academy recruitment and player pathways, tasked with finding the best young talent and neatly bringing his career full circle.
James Milner, 16 years 356 days
Leeds United (v Sunderland, 26 December 2002)
Almost 22 years after a fresh-faced Milner set a then record as the youngest ever Premier League goalscorer, the indefatigable midfielder is still going strong at the age of 39 with Brighton & Hove Albion.
He sits second on the all-time list of Premier League appearances with 637, and will overtake Gareth Barry at the top if he plays a further 17 matches.
Milner's first goal came for hometown club Leeds United in a Boxing Day win over Sunderland and was swiftly followed by another strike in a victory over Chelsea.
In a glittering career in which Milner has also played for Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Liverpool and now Brighton, he has won three Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League and two FA Cups.
Milner played 61 times for England before retiring from international duty in 2016.
He joined Brighton in the summer of 2023 and is contracted through to the end of this season.
Wayne Rooney, 16 years 360 days
Everton (v Arsenal, 19 October 2002)
A couple of months before Milner took the record off him, Rooney briefly held the accolade of youngest Premier League goalscorer thanks to a stunning strike that announced his arrival onto the senior footballing stage in breathtaking fashion.
Shortly after coming off the bench, Rooney unleashed a 90th-minute long-range winner that ended Arsenal's 30-game unbeaten league run and prompted commentator Clive Tyldesley to utter the iconic words: "Remember the name, Wayne Rooney."
Rooney gave us many more reasons to remember his career. After impressing at Everton, he joined Manchester United at the age of 18 and went on to become the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 253 goals in his 13 years there.
He scored 53 times for England - also a record until it was broken by Harry Kane in March 2023 - and went on to have a second spell at Everton, before playing for DC United in the US and finally Derby County.
Rooney retired as a player when Derby appointed him as their manager. After further stints in charge of DC United and Birmingham City, he became the boss of Championship side Plymouth Argyle last summer. He held that post until leaving the club by mutual agreement on New Year's Eve.
Cesc Fabregas, 17 years 113 days
Arsenal (v Blackburn Rovers, 25 August 2004)
Having come through the Barcelona academy, Fabregas moved to north London in September 2003, making his Arsenal debut that season and scoring in the EFL Cup.
It was not until the start of the following campaign that he broke through into the Premier League side, scoring his first league goal in a 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers and swiftly becoming a mainstay of the team.
He was named club captain aged just 21 and played more than 200 games for the club before returning to Barcelona for three seasons and then heading back to London when he joined Chelsea.
Fabregas ended his playing career at Italian club Como in the summer of 2023 and was appointed as head coach of the club’s Under-19 and "B" teams.
He then spent time as interim head coach and assistant coach of the senior side, before he was appointed as permanent manager last summer.
Michael Owen, 17 years 143 days
Liverpool (v Wimbledon, 6 May 1997)
Thirteen months before he starred for England at FIFA World Cup 1998, a teenage Owen came off the bench for his Liverpool debut and scored at Wimbledon, heralding the start of an illustrious playing career.
Owen replaced Robbie Fowler in the Liverpool team the following season and scored 18 goals to share the Premier League Golden Boot.
Having helped Liverpool to lift the EFL Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in 2000/01, he won the Ballon d’Or later that year. That made him the first Englishman to receive the award since Kevin Keegan in 1979, and he remains the last English recipient.
Owen went on to spend a season at Real Madrid, before returning to the Premier League with Newcastle, Man Utd and Stoke City, although injuries increasingly affected the latter stages of his career.
Forever regarded as one of the finest teenagers ever to play the game, he now works as a television pundit.
Andy Turner, 17 years 166 days
Tottenham Hotspur (v Everton, 5 September 1992)
Barely a month into the Premier League’s inaugural season, Turner became the competition’s youngest scorer when grabbing a last-minute winner against Everton.
The winger made 18 league appearances for Spurs in that campaign, but struggled for game time thereafter and joined Plymouth after a number of loan spells.
An ankle injury hampered his time there, and he played for a number of clubs during the remainder of his career, including Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Yeovil Town and Northampton Town.
Turner moved into coaching after the conclusion of his playing days and, having held academy roles at the likes of Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Port Vale, he was appointed head of youth development at non-league Hednesford Town last summer.
Federico Macheda, 17 years 226 days
Man Utd (v Aston Villa, 5 April 2009)
Macheda joined Man Utd soon after he turned 16 and the Italian finished his first season as the top scorer of the club’s Under-18s.
His senior career began with a bang when he came off the bench to score a stunning, curled stoppage-time strike to give United a vital 3-2 win against Aston Villa in the 2008/09 title race.
Although he scored a second senior winner six days later, at Sunderland, Macheda was unable to force his way into the starting XI on a regular basis.
After loan spells in England, Italy and Germany, he left the club on a permanent basis in the summer of 2014, when he was signed by former United Under-21s coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was then in charge at Championship side Cardiff City.
Macheda has since played for a number of clubs in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and, now aged 33, is currently at Asteras Tripolis in Super League Greece.
Lewis Miley, 17 years 229 days
Newcastle United (v Fulham, 16 December 2023)
Miley, the most recent addition to the top 10 prior to Nwaneri, added his name to the list when he scored in a 3-0 win over Fulham last season.
He joined the Newcastle academy at the age of seven and was touted as the club’s best future prospect before making his Premier League debut as a substitute at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
He made 17 Premier League appearances last season and also became the third-youngest Englishman – after Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden – to start a Champions League match, when he played in a draw at Paris Saint-Germain.
A foot injury sidelined Miley at the start of this season, but the England Under-21 international returned to action as a substitute in Newcastle's wins over Ipswich Town and Aston Villa either side of Christmas.
Magpies head coach Eddie Howe has praised the midfielder's "brilliant brain", so Miley remains one to watch.
Daniel Jebbison, 17 years 309 days
Sheffield United (v Everton, 16 May 2021)
Canadian-born Jebbison moved with his family to England when he was 13 and soon joined the Sheffield United academy.
At the end of a disappointing 2020/21 campaign for the club – in which they didn't win any of their first 17 Premier League games – Jebbison made his professional debut once the Blades' relegation had been confirmed. He scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Everton a week later.
He spent time on loan at League One club Burton Albion the following campaign and began to make inroads into Sheff Utd’s starting XI the season after, but found it difficult to gain a spot upon their promotion back to the Premier League for the 2023/24 season.
Jebbison joined AFC Bournemouth when his Sheff Utd contract expired last summer and made a couple of Premier League appearances at the start of this campaign before he was sent on a season-long loan to Watford.
