A Year in the Life of Smith Rowe Has Been Some Fairytale

If the clock was turned back to 1 December 2020 and you were offered an opportunity to switch lives with someone and spend 12 months walking in their shoes, you could do a lot worse than making Emile Smith Rowe your trade of choice.

What a year the Arsenal playmaker has enjoyed. From being a fringe star at Emirates Stadium and relatively unknown to many outside north London, the classy midfielder is now an England superstar in the making.

Remarkable progress has been made with club and country, with potential there for the immediate future to be even brighter than the recent past. Smith Rowe’s story proves that sporting fairy tales do still exist.

On a domestic front, Arsenal are back in the Premier League top-four mix, with football bets from Space Casino making the Gunners 3/1 shots in a bid to secure Champions League qualification. Turning attention to the international scene and a youthful Three Lions squad is counting down the days to another bid for World Cup glory in Qatar.

It is safe to assume that Smith Rowe will continue to figure prominently in the thoughts of Mikel Arteta and Gareth Southgate as long-term plans are pieced together by those in a results business that requires them to deliver on lofty expectations.

As good as things have been for a home-grown product of a famed academy system at Hale End, they could be about to get even better.

New season, new contract, new number. #ESR10 #MadeInHaleEnd pic.twitter.com/2JI1Lo9J1Y

— Emile Smith Rowe (@emilesmithrowe) July 22, 2021

Such a scenario would have been unimaginable some 12 months ago, but Smith Rowe has shown that you should always dream big while shooting for the stars. If you want something badly enough and have the talent to help you down said path, then anything is possible.

A Year to Remember

As December dawned in 2020, Smith Rowe had one Football League Trophy appearance and a substitute outing in a solitary Europa League fixture to his name. It was not shaping up to be a breakthrough campaign for a player of considerable promise.

Fate can, however, do peculiar things and an unexpected window of opportunity was about to swing open for a man whose most regular run of minutes to date had come during a loan spell at Championship side Huddersfield Town.

On 3 December, Smith Rowe found the target in a 4-1 win over Rapid Vienna in the continental competition. A few weeks later, on Boxing Day and with injuries to others working in his favour, a starting berth was earned in a derby date with Chelsea.

There was to be no looking back from there. By the end of the season, a further 28 appearances had been taken in. Competition from a Real Madrid loanee in the form of Martin Odegaard was being seen off and a new contract was tabled in the summer of 2021, along with an opportunity to fill the fabled No.10 jersey.

Welcome to camp, @emilesmithrowe! 😀 pic.twitter.com/lvJxKzF0xM

— England (@England) November 8, 2021

Smith Rowe’s star has continued to soar in the current campaign, with a senior international debut made with England and a first goal scored in a 10-0 thrashing of San Marino. It is consistency at club level that has allowed those dreams to become reality.

The last 12 months have not made the man, nor will they come to define him, but with socks down by his ankles and a swagger in his step, it has been some year for the Croydon native and one that will live long in the memory.