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At present, the world’s premier wonderkid would probably be Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko, who at just 16 years of age already has 19 senior appearances for the German outfit.

Throw in Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham, and you can see why so many big clubs are watching Dortmund with great interest.

None of those three signings is likely to ever end up at Arsenal, a side which is now ‘Big Six’ in name only.

However, the London outfit has snapped up five-year-old Zayn Ali Salman, dubbed the youngest ever recruit at Arsenal’s development programme.

He was first spotted at age four by Stephen Deans, reports ITV:

He said: “He’s just five now, there’s nobody that I’ve seen near (his ability), so he trains with the older boys as standard.

“He’s just head and shoulders above anyone I’ve seen at that age.”

Arsenal told ITV News because of his age, Zayn is not a part of the official Arsenal Academy, but he is “enjoying football sessions” at their West London Development Centre for their youngest age group, Under-6 to Under-8.

Rather predictably, some have given Zayn the nickname ‘Little Messi’.

Way to heap pressure on the kid. Just the 750 or so goals to go.

Let’ see some clips of him in action:

Meet five-year-old footballer Zayn Ali Salman…

He was recently scouted by Arsenal and has become their youngest ever recruit ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/x2tLhEyG9h

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) October 21, 2021

Meet Arsenal’s newest and youngest ever singing, 5-year-old Zayn Ali Salman! 🔴⚪pic.twitter.com/ADvnr5YznQ

— Arsenal Presser (@APresserV2) October 21, 2021

Naturally, Zayn has an Instagram account and is racking up a sizeable following. At the time of writing, he had more than 13 000 followers.

Many young talents have faded into obscurity (here’s looking at you, Freddy Adu).

Hopefully, Zayn won’t be one of them, although if he does crack the big time one can’t see Arsenal retaining his services for very long.

[source:itv]