Young Gun: Max Kuczynski

Throughout the season, we'll be catching up with our young Gunners to find out more about their route to our academy. This week, Max Kuczynski discusses Formula 1's Drive to Survive, getting scouted by Arsenal and looking forward to his Under-18 Premier League debut.

I grew up in the southeast London area around Peckham and started playing football quite young when I was around four. It was mainly through my dad, who brought me up as a huge Arsenal fan. Some of my earliest memories are going to the Arsenal game where we beat Tottenham 5-2 in the North London derby in 2012. That was a crazy game! I remember we came back from 2-0 down, which made the victory even sweeter, and since then, I was hooked! I’m also a huge Formula 1 fan and got into it from watching the Netflix "Drive to Survive" series – Lewis Hamilton is my favourite driver. 

My family background is a mix. My dad’s parents are originally from Poland, hence my surname, but he grew up in England. Similarly, my mum, her parents are from Jamaica, but she also grew up in England, so I’m English but would also qualify to play for Poland and Jamaica too. I’ve got a younger brother who also plays football. 

I went to Kender Primary School, and when I was in Year 3, I was playing for the Year 5 and Year 6 football teams, so playing quite high up. I then went to Harris Academy secondary school in East Dulwich and I continued playing up my age for the school football teams. However, during this whole period, I was playing at striker and a little left-wing too. 

The first team I played for was Dulwich Village, not too far from my house. Then I moved to a team called Elms, they were both Sunday League teams. During this period, I went on trial for the Lewisham District team, which is essentially pooling together all the best players from the borough of Lewisham into a team, and then we would play against other London boroughs. It was from there that I got scouted by Arsenal.

At 11, Arsenal took me in on a trial. I was nervous but also very excited at the prospect of being able to play for the team I supported. In the early days of my trial, I was playing left-wing, but soon after they decided to put me at centre back. I think it was because I was good on the ball and tall. Also, given that I am left-footed and there weren’t many left-footers around, they decided to try me there. At first, it was a bit odd, but then I began to grow and love and enjoy the role. In my team, we had Will Sweet, Jakai Fisher, and Dan Casey who are all still here with me at u18s level. We also had Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, but they were playing in upper-age groups most of the time. 

One of the particular highlights during my Hale End days, I’d say, was when we went to Florida for a tournament in my under-13 season. To be able to travel to different places and discover parts of the world is an amazing opportunity, especially when we’re over there to play football. Also, I remember a game against Leyton Orient at under-15s where I played very well and scored a really nice goal.

"I had to mark Gabriel Jesus, and that was a very tough challenge!"

Getting my scholarship was a special feeling as I am an Arsenal fan and I’ve been at the club for so long. It was great to see the coaches put their faith in me and reward all the hard work that I had put in. Having Jack Wilshere as a coach for us has been great too. I remember watching him play for Arsenal when I was younger, so it's quite surreal having him now coach us and help develop our games so we can also hopefully have Premier League careers with Arsenal.

I’m just recovering from an injury, and I’m very close to being fully fit. I’ve played a few minutes for the under-17s, but I’m very close to making my Under-18 Premier League debut, which I am really looking forward to doing and helping the team for the second half of the season.

I’ve trained with the first team a couple of times, and it’s been a great experience. The tempo they play at is crazy, you fully experience how intense it is at that level. It’s a proper eye-opener. In one of the sessions, I had to mark Gabriel Jesus, and that was a very tough challenge. His dribbling is unreal, and he’s very quick and strong, so it's really hard to deal with. After the session, most of the coaches were very encouraging, so I’m hoping to get better each time. 

Before each game, I always put my right boot on first and then my left boot, and it's the exact same with my shin pads, my right leg first and then my left leg. 

The No More Red campaign is so important because it highlights a really important societal issue. We all need to do more to prevent knife crime and youth violence. Also, we need to ensure that young people have role models to look up to who can encourage them to go on the right path. Arsenal, Arsenal in the Community, and adidas have done great work in this respect and the successes they have had are fantastic. I hope it will continue to help more young people reach their full potential and achieve their goals.