England-based Nigerian coach, Temisan Williams has come under fire from the father of Arsenal’s latest teen sensation, Max Dowman, who last weekend became the English Premier League’s youngest goal scorer, Sports247 reports.
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The 16-year-old midfielder, who has been training with Arsenal’s first team since he was 14, helped set up Viktor Gyokeres’ 89th-minute strike after coming off the bench, then scored on the breakaway in the seventh minute of added time.
However, controversy was added to the story when the youngster’s dad, Robert Dowman took to social media to slam Temisan for allegedly trying to take advantage of his son’s breakthrough with cheap publicity in the media.
Sports247 gathered that, although Dowman’s father admitted Temisan previously worked with his son in the early days of the lad’s career, he accused the former academy coach at Arsenal, Tottenham and Fulham of overblowing his contributions.
The lad’s dad stated via his X account, “Listening to this guy Temisan Williams claiming he was any part of Max’s journey is a really sad piece of attempted self-promotion. I have asked him previously to refrain from doing so.
“Still he pops up on talkSPORT this morning… I remember him putting the cones out at training a few times, but that’s about it. We have so many fabulous coaches who we are so grateful to. He is certainly not one of them.”
However, checks by Sports247 revealed that Temisan, who has BSc and MSc certificates, is highly respected in youth football circles across England, where a profile about him on excellence-coaches.co.uk revealed several of his high points.
The profile, which cited him as founder, ‘Excellence=Consistency,’ added, “Temisan has over 10 years of coaching experience (including leading professional academies; Arsenal FC (current club), Tottenham Hotspur FC, Fulham FC & Southend United FC).
“Over the previous 10 years, Temisan has worked across grassroots and elite football in both the men’s and women’s game. This has included coaching top young English talent such as;
“Finley Burns (Manchester City U18s), Dru Yearwood (New York Red Bulls 1st Team), Chay Cooper (Tottenham Hotspur FC U23s), Joseph Joseph (Wolverhampton Wanderers U23s) and Charlie Kelman (QPR 1st Team).
“He has a Masters in Sports Sciences, Degree in Biomedical Science (Hons) and is Co-author of “The Coach’s Guide to Mind Mapping: The Fundamental Tools to Become an Expert Coach and Maximize Your Players’ Performance.
“Temisan is a UEFA A Licenced Coach (and he is) currently completing his Advanced Youth Award and a Senior Leaders Masters Degree.”
Dowman’s dad, though, is taking offence from how Temisan revealed his links with the new whiz-kid to Ally McCoist and Nigerian-born ex-player, Gabby Agbonlahor during talkSPORT’s breakfast show.
While making his points in a clip titled: ‘Max Dowman’s former coach REVEALS ALL on his journey to first team football at Arsenal!’ Temisan said: “It’s a fantastic thing, incredible thing that Max has done.
“It’s brilliant for his family, the academy, club, fans, and it’s always a bit of a surprise as the journey can have so many ups and downs. He should just enjoy that moment. Scouts have done a fantastic job.
“I was the Under 12s assistant coach and was able to see Max for two years, a small part of his journey. Max has always had that super-strength of being able to carry the ball. It’s something we saw in training and are now seeing on the TV.”
