What Arsenal make of Max Dowman's life away from football will be music to fans' ears

The upbringing of 15-year-old Arsenal talent Max Dowman has impressed the Gunners in the same way his promising talent has. Dowman is not even old enough to sit his GCSE exams, yet he's already made a splash in the Premier League .

Mikel Arteta brought him on during the north Londoners' 5-0 home victory over Leeds United and the teenager immediately repaid his manager's faith by winning a penalty . However, the only concern the teenage sensation has is the high bar he's set at the Emirates Stadium, which may pile all sorts of pressure onto his young shoulders.

Fortunately for Arsenal fans, former 1990s prodigy Sonny Pike – who was widely labelled the English Maradona at the age of 13 but left football after the hype and his chaotic home environment saw him fall out of love with the game – has said how the north Londoners think very highly of Dowman's family.

Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football , Pike, who wrote a book detailing the tragic story of his football career that never was while also running his own one-to-one football coaching academy , said: " I spoke to a friend of mine who's in my book. He’s a coach at Arsenal. I spoke to him about Max. He said he rates him highly and thinks highly of him and his family. So I think he's in good hands."

In the early 1990s, Pike was attracting attention from local and national new outlets, as well as European heavyweight Ajax, as he was scoring around 100 goals a season for his local teams. His technical brilliance, curly hair, yellow football boots and jaw-dropping talent, saw the likes of Blue Peter and Fantasy Football invite him onto their shows, while major brands such as McDonalds, Mizuno, Coca Cola and Paul Smith rushed to sponsor him.

His father – a builder by trade – had never shown an interest in football until he recognised the commercial potential in his teenage son and rushed to accept every media and endorsement opportunity going.

Pike soon gave up on his footballing dream after his dad put him forward to star in a documentary, which they were led to believe was about his talent, but was actually about the poaching of young football players by other clubs.

As a result of his participation, the FA banned him for one year, extinguishing his love for football before he was able to test his talent at the highest level. Pike was the first to admit his home environment was dysfunctional and not ideal for a youngster who had aspirations of captaining England.

The Enfield born football coach is able to recognise talent, having also played alongside Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart during his short time training with Ajax. As excited as he is about Dowman, he is even more relieved about the stable and humble grounding Arsenal's newest young star has.

Pike, speaking about Dowman's coach at Arsenal, added: "He knows me really well because I'm just a personal friend of his. I said, 'What's the environment like compared to how my house used to be?’

"My house was wild, there was all sorts of goings on with my dad and my stepdad and everything else that went on. When I asked him if it is completely different with Max, he said, 'Yeah, it's a lot different, son.'"

While Dowman has a brilliant support network at home and at the Gunners, Pike also urged his team-mates to keep an eye on the prodigy. He added: "For me, I think it’s going to be an overall job for the players and all of his family to keep him grounded. It’s so easy to get caught up in that sort of thing, get some money and everything else.

"I'm sure there were a lot of older pros there that have probably been through that cycle and are keeping him down on the ground and just letting him concentrate and do his football. I can imagine it is too easy to get involved with all the fame and everything else. The next thing you know, you're completely away from the game."

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