There is a special group of teenagers etched into Premier League folklore. Wayne Rooney comes to mind, complete with the immortalized comment “Remember the name!” when he scored for Everton against Arsenal at 16 years old. Cesc Fábregas made his way to Arsenal at the age of 17. Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Owen burst onto the Premier League scene at 18 at United.
For longevity? There's James Milner, who made his debut in 2002 at age 16 and is still going. Fans of each club cling to memories of watching a local youngster make his debut, all hoping he will be the next shining star.
This season, the teenager generating the most headlines in the Premier League is Estêvão at Chelsea. The Brazilian, who arrived for £29million, scored a wonder goal against Barcelona and has provided several jaw-dropping moments of skill to crown him the new wonderkid. But the 18-year-old who sporting directors and agents talk about as an outlier is no longer at Fulham: midfielder Josh King.
Reaching 2025 as a teenager is more difficult than ever, but of all of them, it is King who has the most minutes in the Premier League this season (830).
“Kids that age aren't given these kinds of opportunities as regularly unless they're incredibly talented,” one agent said. “We saw him with Lewis Miley a couple of seasons ago, then with Kobbie Mainoo, but he was a little older.
“The most common thing is that you see young players come off the bench for a few minutes or start games away from the backbone of the team. But being in the middle of the park? Well, that's special.”
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Looking at the minutes of 17- and 18-year-olds last season, Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri (then 17) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) earned 889 and 1,370 minutes, respectively. Tottenham duo Lucas Bergvall (1,206) and Archie Gray (1,743) impressed in their first-team appearances, while midfielder Tyler Dibling played 1,873 minutes for Southampton. Central defender Dean Huijsen at Bournemouth was the standout of last season, playing over 2,000 minutes and then moving to Real Madrid in the summer. This season, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have been used less frequently, Bergvall has 414 minutes to date and Gray has been battling injury. Defender Josh Acheampong has progressed well at Chelsea, but it is King who has impressed the most.
In 2018, aged 11, King was the children's mascot for Fulham's match against Derby and led by captain Tom Cairney. King had been at the academy for three years at that point, and his parents made frequent trips from their home in Wimbledon to drop him off at the academy in Motspur Park. At Fulham they felt he was technically ready for the first team at 16, but gave him time to develop, pointing to Fábio Carvalho's example that patience works. Carvalho, now with Brentford, played 40 senior games for Fulham before moving to Liverpool.
On 22 December 2024, King made his first Premier League start for Fulham at the age of 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 to improve his strength but also fine-tuning his decision-making. He found the key difference between the under-21s and senior level was the lack of time on the ball.
“There is a big step forward,” he said. “The step forward is the speed with which you have pressure, the speed of play, the speed with which you have to think, the extra split-second decision that can affect the game between a goal and an assist.”
Last season he played 127 minutes for the senior Premier League team, and when the summer transfer window opened, Fulham handed King a new contract until 2029. In his first interview after signing, he was asked if he expected to have more minutes in the 2025-26 season. His response: “I want to develop as a player and as a person; those opportunities will come if I keep working hard.”
When Andreas Pereira made it clear that he was interested in joining Brazilian side Palmeiras that summer, Fulham weighed up their options. Instead of signing a new number 10, they turned to King.
Judging when a player is ready to step up is not an exact science, but in general, teams look at his ability, temperament, personality and physical attributes. You also need a Pereira-sized opportunity. In short, it is about good decision making on and off the field of play.
When you talk to people who know King, the first thing they mention is his parents. Michelle and Steve King have wonderfully guided their son's career, without rushing him or getting caught up in the void of peer comparison. They knew he would develop at different rates compared to his teammates. “If you think you're competing as a kid, or worse, as a parent, your kid probably isn't going to make it,” Steve King said on the “Project Footballer” podcast.
Those who have followed King closely point to two moments where his maturity shined this season. The first was the way he recovered from a mistake against Brentford in September. King stooped 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 moves with his next two touches. Then there was the way he responded when his first goal for Fulham was disallowed due to a controversial VAR call. After the game, King wanted to face the media, rather than let the older players speak on his behalf.
Fulham manager Marco Silva has been careful with his playing time; King has averaged 61 minutes in the Premier League this season as a starter ahead of Emile Smith-Rowe. Fulham have been impressed by how quickly he learns on the fly in training and how calm he is on the ball.
Those who have seen him play every game this season point out how he has adapted to playing against physically superior players. He manages to hook his leg around or through them to get to the ball, instead of fighting. We saw that hook in his first Fulham goal against Wycombe in October, when he scored with a backheel in the air.
“I'm enjoying watching the most balletic player at a club I've ever been associated with,” Fulham's director of football development Huw Jennings said on the BBC's “More Than The Score” podcast.
The key now? Patience and careful management. There will be bumpy roads ahead, but at the moment he is an outlier in the Premier League, dictating play in the middle of the park. No wonder his Hampton School classmates compared him to Andrea Pirlo.
