Max Dowman has the potential to be the best English player of his generation – and now Arsenal may be about to sign another in that bracket.
Leicester youngster Jeremy Monga is six months older than Dowman but has made three times as many first-team appearances and mentors at the Foxes have no doubt: he can be just as good as the Arsenal teenager. If the Gunners get their way, they will soon be team-mates.
Just relegated to League One, Leicester know they are likely to have to sell Monga but they are determined not to do so on the cheap. Daily Mail Sport understands Leicester will demand up to £10million for the 16-year-old winger who is right-footed but usually plays off the left.
Timing is crucial here. Last year Leicester announced Monga had ‘committed’ to signing his first professional contract on his 17th birthday on July 10.
Once he has done that, Leicester are entitled to demand a fee. It was a similar situation for Jude Bellingham, who signed professional forms with Birmingham in July 2020 to ensure the club would receive a substantial fee (around £25m) when he moved to Borussia Dortmund shortly afterwards.
Assuming matters proceed as planned, Leicester can celebrate a job well done. Had they lost Monga a year ago to Manchester City, Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain, a tribunal would have been required to determine the compensation.
Just relegated to League One, Leicester know they are likely to have to sell their young winger Jeremy Monga, 16, but they are determined not to do so on the cheap
The winger is right-footed but usually plays off the left wing and cuts inside
As long as Monga is still a Leicester player on his birthday, as he should be, the Foxes will be able to call the shots.
If Arsenal win this race, they will leave several rivals disappointed. So why the fuss? In 1,193 minutes at senior level, Monga has one goal and two assists. For comparison, Dowman has one of each in 477 minutes. But it is always about more than raw statistics.
Sometimes coaches see a body swerve, say, or a sudden acceleration, and their pulse quickens. Steve Cooper knows a thing or two about young players having led England Under 17s to the World Cup in 2017 and was impressed immediately by Monga.
It was Cooper, during his short spell at Leicester, who invited Monga, direct, tricky and quick, to join the first-team squad and took him to Old Trafford for a Carabao Cup tie in October 2024. Monga made his debut in the Premier League aged 15 years and 271 days and did not look out of place. Where his education allowed, he had been training with the first team for months before that.
‘(His talent’s been noticed) by the whole world,’ said then-Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy in January 2025. ‘That’s why we have him with the first team where possible. I want him to be part of the long-term future of the club.’
Being ‘the wonderkid’ at a place like Leicester is double-edged, though. When a club of this level have a jewel on their hands, it is tempting to treat them differently from other youngsters. If they transgress, on or off the field, are they always subjected to the same disciplinary measures as a player of lesser ability?
Will academy coaches really read the riot act to their best prospects when they know these players could walk away within a week, potentially costing the club millions of pounds? It is a difficult balancing act.
In Monga’s defence, few players his age have passed the 1,000-minute barrier in senior football, and he has never appeared out of his depth in the first team. Generational talent, though? That label should not be applied lightly.
‘(His talent’s been noticed) by the whole world,’ said then-Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy in January 2025 about Monga
Some observers believe Monga would do better to stay at Leicester and try to help them out of League One
Some believe Monga has yet to develop that bloody-mindedness that allows a winger to continue running at his full back, even if he has lost the ball or taken a hefty whack.
‘If I’m playing against him, I’m kicking him into Row Z,’ one former EFL defender tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘If he gets tackled the first time he takes on a full back, he doesn’t seem to want to try it again.’
Those same observers believe Monga would do better to stay at Leicester and try to help them out of League One. They do not believe he is ready to play for a top club like Arsenal and could therefore risk losing his way in their Under-21 side. Arsenal’s current left-wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard do not need to fret just yet.
‘He might be volleyed all over the place in League One but it would make him tougher,’ says one experienced scout.
Leicester’s financial status means it is unlikely Monga will stay. Consecutive relegations have hit hard and the Foxes were already in a precarious position. Homegrown players are a lifesaver for the balance sheet and Leicester need to cash in.
Would Arsenal allow him to rejoin the Foxes on loan? That may be the smartest move. That way, the Gunners could monitor his development while ensuring Monga continues to gather first-team experience in a familiar environment.
For all the mistakes Leicester have made in recent years, and there have been far too many, they should be proud of their academy, and Monga’s progress is a feather in the cap for their legendary academy scout Bill Wall.
Wall discovered Monga and, cleverly, Leicester ensure these scouts stay in contact with youngsters throughout their pathway. Unlike many academies, Leicester rarely recruit Under-16 players from different parts of the country. Not only do such deals require compensation, Leicester feel they might dilute the strong local feel they have sought to create at their £95m base in the Leicestershire countryside.
Arsenal’s current left-winger Leandro Trossard may not need to fret about his place just yet
Monga playing for England Under 19s against the Netherlands in 2025
Of the nine academy players in the squad for Leicester’s Carabao Cup match at Huddersfield in August 2025, all but goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk and defender Bade Aluko had been with the club since Under-9 level.
Four of them – Will Alves, Hamza Choudhury, Luke Thomas and Louis Page – are from the Leicester area.
These are the foundations for Leicester to build on. Even if Monga’s peers are not as talented as he is, Leicester should still have a local core around which to construct next season’s promotion campaign, and the club’s wider recovery.
If Monga moves to Arsenal, it will prove their academy structure is sound. Now is the time to make proper use of it.
