Arsenal Rookie & Young-Gun Cards

The biggest gains in collecting usually come from getting in early on the right young player. For Arsenal, that splits into two different bets: established young stars whose careers are still climbing, and the academy graduates who only just got their first cards.

Young guns still climbing

These names are already stars — their rookie-card window is behind them, but their careers (and card pools) are still growing.

• Bukayo Saka — already a star, but still early in his career; his 2019-20 breakout-season cards remain the headline young-gun buy, led by the in-stock Chrome UEFA #148.
• Gabriel Martinelli — affordable early cards and real upside. Unusually for an import, his rookie-era cards are Arsenal cards: he arrived from Brazilian state-level football in 2019 with no prior card footprint. In stock: Chrome UEFA #57.
• Martin Ødegaard — a deep pool of earlier-career cards for the captain, though his true rookie year (2014-15, as a Real Madrid-bound wonderkid) predates Arsenal entirely; his Arsenal-era cards, like the in-stock Chrome UEFA #88, are collected as the fan-favourite modern issues rather than rookies.

True current rookies: the academy pipeline

Two Hale End graduates broke into Arsenal’s first team in 2024-25 and have genuine first-year cardboard on shelves right now, in the Prodigy subset of 2024-25 Topps Deco UEFA — both are listed there as Arsenal FC, and Deco assigns no card numbers, so match these by subset and photo rather than by number:

• Myles Lewis-Skelly — his Deco Prodigy RC is his actual, current rookie card.
• Ethan Nwaneri — became the Premier League’s youngest-ever player back in 2022, years before his card debut; his Deco Prodigy rookie is the first card of his that exists.

Max Dowman is the next name down the same academy conveyor belt — a wonderkid collectors are already watching, with no card yet.

How to buy young-gun cards

Use the live eBay rails below to see current listings. Prices on young players move fast, so buy what you believe in and grade the copies you plan to hold. Confirm the year and set in every listing before you commit — that distinction matters most for the true rookies above, since Deco Prodigy is their only card so far.

For the club’s full established core, see the best Arsenal cards list; for the complete current squad by card number, the Arsenal team-set checklist; and for the buying fundamentals, our Arsenal collecting guide.