There is a special group of teenagers etched into Premier League folklore. Wayne Rooney comes to mind, complete with the immortalized commentary "Remember the name!" when he scored for Everton against Arsenal at age 16. Cesc Fabregas broke through at Arsenal at age 17. Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Owen exploded onto the Premier League scene at 18 at United.
For longevity? There's James Milner, who made his debut in 2002 at 16 and is still going. Every club's fans hold fast to their memories of witnessing a homegrown youngster making their debut, all hoping he'll be the next bright thing.
This season, the teenager generating the most Premier League headlines is Estêvão at Chelsea. The Brazilian, who arrived for £29 million, scored a wondergoal against Barcelona and has provided several jaw-dropping moments of skill to crown him the new wunderkind. But the 18-year-old whom sporting directors and agents are talking about as an outlier is over at Fulham: midfielder Josh King.
To break through in 2025 as a teenager is harder than ever, but out of all of them, it is King who has the most minutes in the Premier League this season (830).
"Boys that age don't get given these sorts of opportunities with that regularity unless they're incredible talents," one agent said. "We saw it with Lewis Miley a couple of seasons ago, then Kobbie Mainoo, but he was a little older.
"More often, you see young players get a few minutes off the bench, or start matches out wide away from the spine of the team. But to be in the middle of the park? Well, that's special."
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Looking at the minutes for 17- and 18-year-olds last season, Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri (then 17) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) got 889 and 1,370 minutes, respectively. Tottenham duo Lucas Bergvall (1,206) and Archie Gray (1,743) impressed in first-team appearances, while midfielder Tyler Dibling played for 1,873 minutes at Southampton. Center back Dean Huijsen at Bournemouth was last season's standout, playing over 2,000 minutes and then moving to Real Madrid in the summer. This season, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have been used more sparingly, Bergvall has 414 minutes to date and Gray has been struggling with injury. Defender Josh Acheampong has progressed well at Chelsea, but it's King who has most impressed.
Back in 2018, at age 11, King was a child mascot for Fulham's match against Derby and walked out holding captain Tom Cairney's hand. King had been in the academy for three years at that point, his parents making the frequent journey from their home in Wimbledon to drop him off at the academy in Motspur Park. They felt at Fulham that technically, he was ready for the first team at 16, but they gave him time to develop, pointing to Fábio Carvalho's example that patience works. Carvalho, now with Brentford, made 40 senior appearances for Fulham before moving to Liverpool.
On Dec. 22, 2024, King made his first Premier League start for Fulham at 17 in a 0-0 draw with Southampton. The captain? Cairney. King had already been training with the first team for three or four months, working on improving his strength but also fine-tuning his decision-making. He found the key difference between under-21s and senior level was the lack of time you have on the ball.
"There's a big step up," he said. "The step up is the speed you have pressure on you, the speed of play, the speed you have to think, the extra split-second decision which can affect the game between a goal and assist."
He went on to play 127 minutes for the senior team in the Premier League last term, and when the summer transfer window opened, Fulham handed King a new deal through 2029. In his first interview post-signing, he was asked whether he hoped for more minutes in the 2025-26 season. His response: "I want to develop as a player and person -- those opportunities will come if I keep working hard."
When Andreas Pereira made it clear he was keen on a move to Brazilian club Palmeiras that summer, Fulham weighed up their options. Instead of signing a new No. 10, they turned to King.
Judging when a player is ready to make the step up is no exact science, but by and large, teams look to ability, temperament, personality and physical attributes. You also need a Pereira-sized opportunity. In short, it comes down to good decision-making on and off the pitch.
When you talk to people who know King, the first thing they mention are his parents. Michelle and Steve King have wonderfully steered their son's career, not rushing him, nor getting sucked into the vacuum of peer comparison. They knew he would develop at different rates compared to his teammates. "If you think you're in competition as a child, or even worse, as a parent, your child probably won't make it," Steve King said on the "Project Footballer" podcast.
Those who have kept a close eye on King point to two moments when his maturity shone through this season. The first was the way he bounced back from an error against Brentford back in September. King dropped deep to receive the ball from the goalkeeper but sent his pass straight to Mikkel Damsgaard, who opened the scoring. King's head dropped, but he played through it and made two positive actions with his next two touches. Then there was the way he responded to having his first goal for Fulham chalked off due to a controversial VAR call. Postmatch, King wanted to face the media, instead of letting more senior players speak on his behalf.
Fulham manager Marco Silva has been careful with his game time; King has averaged 61 minutes in the Premier League this season while starting ahead of Emile Smith-Rowe. Fulham have been impressed with how quickly he learns on the go in training, and how calm he is on the ball.
Those who've seen him play every match this season point to how he has adjusted to playing against physically superior players. He manages to hook his leg around or through them to get to the ball, rather than getting in a tussle. We saw that hook for his first Fulham goal against Wycombe in October as he scored via a midair back heel.
"I enjoy watching the most balletic player in a club side I have been associated with," Fulham head of football development Huw Jennings said on the BBC podcast "More Than The Score."
The key now? Patience and careful management. There will be bumpy roads ahead, but right now, he's an outlier in the Premier League, dictating play in the middle of the park. No wonder his mates at Hampton School used to compare him to Andrea Pirlo.