Harvey Elliott, a rising star for Liverpool, talked candidly about a heartbreaking time in his football career when he thought his goals had been dashed.
Elliott talked about the challenges he overcame as a young player, including being turned down by Chelsea’s development program. He has since overcome this setback and is currently celebrating a major career milestone with Liverpool. Elliott, who just celebrated playing 100 games for Liverpool, revealed his early hardships at Liverpool’s The Reds Roundtable series. Elliott is now the fourth-youngest player in the history of the club to achieve this feat. The 21-year-old midfielder’s path to greatness hasn’t exactly been easy.
Harvey Elliott was let go by Chelsea due to his perceived small size.
Elliott discussed his early struggles, accompanied by manager Jurgen Klopp, academy director Alex Inglethorpe, and teammate Cody Gakpo.
Elliott recalled his days at Chelsea “as a kid” and remarked, “They released me because they felt I was too little.” He claimed that this rejection crushed him and made him think that his football career was “gone.” Around the ages of eleven or twelve, Elliott found himself playing in local leagues “with my friends” after being released by the West London team. Elliott’s father, Scott, was crucial to his son’s growth despite being informed that he didn’t have the necessary height. He put his son through rigorous training regimens to improve his physical features.
Elliott recalled that over the entire summer and off-season, “my dad was saying, ‘no, you’re running up massive hills.'” For the teenager at the time, everything changed at that very instant. I was training at Fulham, which is a pre-academy facility, once or twice a week, but I wasn’t really enjoying it. But after that, Fulham got in touch with my dad and said, “He doesn’t seem to have a club.” Is he interested in attending a trial?” The rest is history after that. “When I was thirteen, I went to Fulham for a trial and stayed there until I was sixteen,” the speaker said.
Elliott made his debut in the League Cup at the age of 15 years and 174 days, making him the youngest player to ever play for the club in first team history. Elliott’s talent and tenacity have blossomed on the field despite the early difficulties, solidifying his position as a vital member of Liverpool with 51 appearances this season (surpassed only by Darwin Nunez on 52). Elliott is clearly a valuable addition to Jurgen Klopp’s team, and as he continues to flourish, Chelsea has lost out to Liverpool. The 5 feet 7 inch midfielder’s success story is far from finished, with much more undoubtedly to come in the Arne Slot era, even if he was considered “too little” for Stamford Bridge.