Thomas Tuchel keeps England’s World Cup door open for teenager Max Dowman

England boss Thomas Tuchel has kept the door open to 16-year-old Max Dowman potentially earning a World Cup spot but says he feels almost a parental duty of care when it comes to the Arsenal wonderkid.

The attacking midfielder set tongues wagging this week after superbly wrapping up the league leaders’ key 2-0 win over Everton, becoming the youngest ever Premier League goalscorer in the process.

Dowman’s eye-catching display off the bench came on just his seventh appearance in senior football, yet sparked debate as to whether World Cup glory might end up taking precedence over his GCSEs this summer.

The teenager was called up to England’s Under-19s squad on Friday instead of the senior side, but Tuchel is not ruling out a stunning late call-up for North America.

“We know all these players and we see them as you do as well,” the England boss said.

“At the moment, I think he’s in a good place to fight for his position, fight for his minutes at Arsenal and we always have the chance to call him up maybe for the World Cup.

“The thing with young players is to keep their momentum going and keep their excitement, and they have a level of fearlessness with them.

“So, no need to call him up now and increase the pressure and increase all the noise that comes with it, but we have all options.”

Dowman would not be the first teenager to earn a spot at a major tournament after the likes of Michael Owen, Jude Bellingham, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott got the nod.

“Why wouldn’t I keep the door open? I keep the door open for anyone with any age,” Tuchel said. “Why wouldn’t I take the last decision. I learned this as a coach, you take the last decision.”

Walcott is England’s youngest ever player at 17 years 75 days – a record set in 2006 that Dowman would smash if he played any minutes this summer.

Asked if he felt a little uncomfortable talking about the Arsenal talent, Tuchel said: “Yeah, a little bit because I feel almost parental responsibility about it.

“It was a bit the same discussion (last March) with Myles Lewis-Skelly, who was flying at Arsenal.

“I remember watching them in the Bernabeu and thinking: ‘How is this possible? How experienced can you play with no experience at all?’

“Now he’s entering that difficult time and we had the discussion with him, if we call him up and he straight away he scored for us, so we have to be careful and responsible.

“I know that it’s difficult because he puts himself up there with all this quality.

“I hear he has the best surroundings around him and the best support system around him. He is in a good club where teamwork is rule number one, so these are all good sign.

“But, yeah, I would prefer not to talk too much about him because I feel it just doesn’t help.”

Tuchel stressed that comparisons and overhype are unhelpful after Lamine Yamal’s role in Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph and the fact he only turned 17 on the eve of the final against England, was mentioned.

“There’s also the risk to compare it to Lamine Yamal, to compare it to, I don’t know, (Lionel) Messi and so on, and the age when they have made their way into it,” he added.

“I’m not aware of it but has Lamine Yamal played more minutes for his club before he played for his country? I would say so, yeah.

“But this is exactly the danger and the risk of all of that, it becomes a crazy hype that does – in the end – not help.”