Ethan Nwaneri’s energetic presence was sorely missed by Arsenal as they were knocked out of the 2024/25 FA Cup by Manchester United. The 18-year-old winger has been the breakthrough talent for Mikel Arteta’s side this season, showing shades of Bukayo Saka with his irresistible playing style.
Nwaneri is a dedicated footballer who has wowed fans with his two excellent goals in the Premier League this season. Fortunately for the 17-year-old, he’s been kept grounded and humble by his humble Nigerian parents. Nwaneri was born on 21 March, 2007 in Enfield (North London), with his father and mother having immigrated from Nigeria.
Growing up in Holloway, a district that is 51 minutes away from the Emirates Stadium, Nwaneri grew up in a household of devout Arsenal fanatics. His father, Obinna Nwaneri, played an influential role in the kind of person that he’d grow up to be. Ethan is the eldest of his three siblings (his younger brother Emerson made his England under-15 debut in 2024), and has had to play the role of big brother through his life.
Even though Ethan’s parents have maintained a low profile and hardly posed for public pictures while helping him excel as a footballer, his father Obi played a particularly influential role in his development. Ethan attended the St. John’s Senior School in Enfield (where the fees can go up to £16,500-a-year) and was enrolled in the Arsenal youth academy at the age of eight by his parents.
He started excelling with the help of world-class coaching in the Gunners’ academy, and Nwaneri has also credited his father for being his biggest teacher. In an interview with club media a few years ago, he revealed: “My dad, Obi, coaches me and my brother, Emerson, who’s 14 and at Hale End.
“I’d say my dad is my main coach, my main critic, and my main support. Over the years he’s always taken me and my brother to do extra work in our local park in Islington, to help with finishing, working on our touch or whatever. We live local to Emirates Stadium so it’s great that we’ve done that,” he added.
Nwaneri’s grounded nature is inspired by his father, who is a kind-hearted and humble man. Obi Nwaneri showed his heart of gold by making a young Arsenal fan’s day after Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Preston North End in the Carabao Cup in late October (2024), as he noticed the supporter wanting Nwaneri’s no.53 shirt and called the young fan over to grant him his wish after the match.
Obi has also noted how it was former Arsenal winger Alex Iwobi who acted as a major inspirational factor for Ethan, as he stated: “Iwobi’s rise to the top at Arsenal inspired my son and he sees him as his idol till date. I am also close to his parents so it was easy mentoring my son who was still very young when Iwobi broke into the first team at Arsenal. The dream to match and surpass the feat by Iwobi is also a driving force.”
Even though Ethan was eligible to represent Nigeria at the international level thanks to his parents being from the country, he has opted to play for England and made his debut for their under-16 side at the age of 15 in 2022.
Despite encouraging Ethan’s development into a quality footballer, Obi Nwaneri has always been very strict about his son’s educational pursuits. He apparently warned Ethan that if he failed in his end-of-year examinations in 2022, Obi would bar him from playing for England at the youth level. Ethan even took his GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations in Hungary when playing for England under-17s in the UEFA under-17 Euros in 2023.
To his credit, Nwaneri has not been transformed by receiving the bright spotlight of fame at a very young age. That is because of how his strict Nigerian parents brought him up to be and ensured that Ethan would always remain grounded, irrespective of how much money or popularity he obtained.
