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On Saturday afternoon Ainsley Maitland-Niles became Roma’s first signing of the January transfer window.
The 24-year-old England international completed a temporary switch from Premier League side – read the full details of the agreement here.
With the versatile player in line to make his debut against Juventus on Sunday night, we’ve rounded up the key facts you need to know about him…
1. Maitland-Niles was born on 29 August 1997 in Goodmayes, a suburb of Ilford in the London borough of Redbridge. He joined the Arsenal academy when he was just six years old.
A versatile player, Maitland-Niles has already played in a variety of positions during his professional career to date – including as a right-back, left wing-back, central midfielder and winger. His first manager, Arsene Wenger, described him by saying, “he adapts very quickly and is a good defender. He has that sense of one against one, he is very strong, he is very quick, he has very quick recovery runs when he comes back."
Maitland-Niles made his senior debut for the Gunners as a 17-year-old in December 2014, coming in an away win over Galatasaray in the Champions League. As a result, he became the second youngest player ever to play in a UCL game for the club (behind only Jack Wilshere).
Four days later he made his Premier League debut, this time as a late substitute in a home win over Newcastle.
This is not Maitland-Niles first experience out on loan: he has previously played for both Ipswich Town (2015-16) and West Brom (2021).
In December 2018 he scored his first goal for Arsenal, against Liverpool at Anfield. In total Maitland-Niles has notched three goals in 132 Premier League matches for the Gunners.
Maitland-Niles has been a regular for England throughout the age groups, representing the Three Lions from Under-17 to Under-21 level. In 2017 he won the World Cup with the Under-20s in South Korea. In August 2020, meanwhile, he received his first call-up to the senior side – and he would go on to make his debut in September that year (against Denmark).
Maitland-Niles becomes the fourth English player to represent the Giallorossi in the club’s history, after Ashley Cole, Chris Smalling and Tammy Abraham. The latter duo are currently at the club.
Of his five England caps to date, Maitland-Niles played alongside Abraham in two of them – against the Republic of Ireland and Finland in matches that took place in November 2020.
Maitland-Niles wore a number of different shirt numbers during his time at Arsenal. He started off with the No. 70 shirt, switching to the No. 30 ahead of the 2017-18 season.
Since 2018 he has been the holder of the No. 15 shirt - the number he has also selected to wear for Roma.
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