ARSENAL star Reiss Nelson has revealed that he has his elder brother Ricky to thank for keeping him on the straight and narrow. The 20-year-old grew up on south London’s Aylesbury Estate, one of the capital’s roughest – where drugs, knife crime and gangs are commonplace. Nelson’s exceptional talent offered him a way out, although […]
ARSENAL star Reiss Nelson has revealed that he has his elder brother Ricky to thank for keeping him on the straight and narrow.
The 20-year-old grew up on south London’s Aylesbury Estate, one of the capital’s roughest – where drugs, knife crime and gangs are commonplace.
Nelson’s exceptional talent offered him a way out, although he has his family to thank for making sure he stayed on the right path.
On his childhood’s difficult backdrop, Nelson told the Standard: “It’s easy to say you’d be doing this and that, but I’m from a neighbourhood where I don’t know what I’d have been doing if I didn’t have football.
“A lot of my best friends were doing the wrong stuff, got caught up in the wrong stuff, and they were top, top footballers.
“It could be drugs or involvement in gangs, things like that. A lot of the time it’s like that in south London.
“There was even one kid who was at Arsenal with me and then he went on the wrong path and unfortunately he isn’t doing that any more.
“It’s hard, and hard for me to see that as well because there are so many talented kids out there who maybe don’t really get the nurturing they need to go on to be really good.”
My brother would always have his arm round me to keep me going in the right direction. I think that’s helped me and without him I don’t know if I’d be here today doing the good things I’m doing for Arsenal.
Reiss Nelson
His siblings Ricky and Tessa were both youth workers, and Reiss reflected: “My brother was a big influence on me, he always pushed me in that direction of just playing football and that’s it.
“All the time after school I didn’t really have another choice, I’d either go to my brother’s youth work in Peckham or my sister’s in Albany Road.
“My brother would always have his arm round me to keep me going in the right direction. I think that’s helped me and without him I don’t know if I’d be here today doing the good things I’m doing for Arsenal.
“From a young age as a kid you always want to be the best, of course, but it’s so hard to always do the right stuff like go to sleep on time, go to training and have the right people around you.
“But my brother was the one drilling it into my head that he didn’t want anyone to distract me so he was always there.”
Nelson went on to make his Arsenal debut in the 2017 Community Shield, at which point, Ricky felt his work was done.
“[Ricky said] Reiss, you’re on the way to the top now so I can leave you be, you know what you want to do,” the Arsenal starlet continued.
Nelson has now gone on to make 30 first-team appearances for Arsenal, with 15 coming this season.
He is currently working his way back to fitness after suffering a hamstring injury.
And he will be hoping to impress new boss Mikel Arteta upon his return.
