The pair were both named in the top 10 of the NXGN 2025 list of the world's best wonderkids – yet more common ground for the childhood best friends
It is every football-obsessed young person's dream to make it as a professional, while achieving that alongside their best friend would be an unfathomable bonus. The chances of that actually happening, though? Basically non-existent.
Incredibly, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are living that dream at one of the biggest clubs in the country. The latest pair of Hale End graduates to make waves in the Arsenal first team, they have been on a remarkably similar pathway for more than a decade – culminating in their coinciding breakthroughs under Mikel Arteta in 2024-25.
But this is just the beginning, with the childhood pals primed to become the present and future for club and country after they took their place in the top 10 of the NXGN 2025 list of the 50 best wonderkids on the planet.
GettyShared path
Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri's routes to the Arsenal first team have serendipitously intertwined since the very beginning of their journeys, with their friendship blossoming 12 years ago. Having already become close friends, the pair – who are both Arsenal fans and hail from north London – were part of the same intake at the Gunners' Hale End academy at Under-9s level in May 2015.
They would rise through the ranks there together playing above their age grade, even making their debuts for the U18s in the when they were both still just 14 years old. Nwaneri started and scored, while Lewis-Skelly came off the bench to bag a brilliant goal himself to complete a 6-1 rout of Reading.
Although Nwaneri famously became the Premier League's youngest-ever player when he made his first-team bow from the bench against Brentford aged just 15 in 2022, that did not prove to be the major breakthrough that many might have expected as he was handled very carefully internally by Arsenal.
In 2023, both players notably formed a core part of the side that reached the FA Youth Cup final, with Lewis-Skelly scoring a 121st-minute winner against Manchester City in the semis. They would be denied the trophy in the final by an outstanding West Ham team.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportOpportunity knocks
The long-time best friends have continued on a remarkably similar trajectory right up to the 2024-25 campaign, and it was only fitting that they should make their first-team breakthroughs almost simultaneously.
Having been involved in the senior setup throughout pre-season, both were in and around Arteta's squad at the start of the season, with Lewis-Skelly handed his Premier League debut in the draw with Man City in September, when Erling Haaland infamously asked him 'Who the f*ck are you?!' in a post-match fracas.
Their respective minutes would gradually increase before injuries in both attack and defence meant their head coach was forced to lean on them both heavily amid the hectic winter period, with their development fast-tracked once again.
Neither has looked back since, and they are now firmly part of the first-team picture. The pinnacle was perhaps both finding the back of the net in a 5-1 demolition of City in the reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium in early February, with Lewis-Skelly making sure Haaland doesn't forget him anytime soon as he ripped off the Norwegian's 'zen' celebration following his first-ever Gunners goal, before his mate rounded off the scoring with a sublime finish from the edge of the box.
Arsenal may well point to their injury woes when they inevitably lose out in the title race to Liverpool, but Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri's joint emergence will be considered a significant silver lining to the crisis.
GettyChelsea's loss
Things could have been very, very different, however; the best friends actually first met on trial with Arsenal's fierce London rivals Chelsea, but – as was the case with their esteemed team-mate Declan Rice – the Blues let them both slip through their fingertips.
"I first joined the academy at Under-9s level, after I had trialled at Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur," Lewis-Skelly said in 2024. "Since then I’ve been patient, keeping my head down and working. I don’t think there have been significant downs throughout my journey because I don’t see anything as downs – I just see them as learning opportunities.
"Before I joined Arsenal, I knew Ethan Nwaneri because we were at Chelsea together and we’ve kind of gone up the ranks together," he revealed.
Ironically, it has been reported that Chelsea had been desperate to re-sign Nwaneri in particular before he committed his future to Arsenal in 2023. The Blues' loss is certainly proving to be Arsenal's gain.
Given the west Londoners' transfer policy of going after the best young players around, it will sting to see two of England's most prodigious talents starring for their rivals having been on their books way back when.
GettyShining out of position
What makes the teenage duo's meteoric rise in 2024-25 all the more impressive is that they have both largely been operating out of position, providing Arteta with much-needed solutions in problem areas with a raft of senior stars sidelined.
Nwaneri describes himself as an attacking midfielder, but he has deputised ably for the injured Bukayo Saka on the right wing more often than not, swiftly developing a flair for cutting inside on his preferred left foot and unleashing fierce shots on goal.
Meanwhile, Lewis-Skelly has emerged as Arsenal's first-choice left-back despite being nominally a defensive or central midfielder, delivering staunch performances against some of the league's best wingers. Arteta has suggested he will be given his chance as a No.6 or No.8 soon enough, though.
This versatility could prove invaluable; the Gunners have developed two potentially elite players who can cover multiple positions in key areas of the pitch.
