Harvey Elliott has played the super-sub role to near perfection at Liverpool in the 2023/24 season. Because of the sheer competitiveness, the Englishman has mostly been benched for the Reds’ games. But he’s only embraced that, and four of his five-goal contributions in the Premier League have come as a substitute so far in this campaign.
Even in Liverpool’s most recent 3-1 win over Sheffield United, Harvey added much-needed energy and creativity to his side’s attacking line. He might not have been directly involved in any goals, the Englishman still created two chances and raised his side’s performance levels.
With that being said, something curious happened when Elliott was brought on against the Blades. It happened just before the 60-minute mark. Jurgen Klopp surprisingly opted to take off Mohamed Salah, who was having a sloppy game and bring on Elliott to change up his side’s attacking pattern and add a bit more directness to the attacking moves.
Mo Salah's reaction to being substituted with Liverpool needing a goal 👀
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 4, 2024
Elliott received a warm reception from the Anfield faithful while coming on, but his gestures immediately after entering the field caught many fans’ attention. Some supporters immediately started questioning if the Englishman had taken to Islam and become a Muslim.
The reason for this was because the winger was seemingly praying with his hands and imitating a gesture that Muslim people are often associated with in their prayers.
But Elliott’s actions has managed to raise burning questions about his religious following. Interestingly, the 22-year-old has given subtle hints in the past about his supposed admiration towards Islam. A few years ago, Harvey was seen appreciating the poetry of ‘Muslim Belal’ on Instagram, which initially triggered a theory that he might’ve converted to Islam.
Harvey Elliot supporting well known Poet "Muslim Belal" on instagram. The rumours of him being a Muslim may actually be true. pic.twitter.com/TI8oZdioBc
Despite some wild speculation from some supporters about the possibility of the 21-year-old having converted to Islam, the reality of the situation points towards something else.
Elliott was born in Chertsey, a borough in Surrey – England. His parents are both of British nationality and Christian. As a result, Harvey is also obviously a born Christian and is actually quite devoted to his loved ones. In fact, his father Scott actually tutored him to develop the ideal personality to become a professional footballer and enrolled him to Queens Park Rangers’ youth academy at a young age.
The 21-year-old has not shown any signs of having converted to Islam, which would’ve sparked a name change or at least been covered by news outlets.
In fact, Elliott was seen doing the ‘Sign of the cross’ – a popular catholic gesture – during Liverpool’s Champions League encounter against Rangers back in 2022.
The English winger appears to be a very open-minded individual who respects and admires multiple religious beliefs, which probably also includes Islam. So while he might not be a Muslim or practice Islamic beliefs, he could admire their way of thinking or devotion methods in his way of life.
More than anything else, the Liverpool winger is currently just focused on becoming an Anfield legend. His popularity has soared with impressive performances this season and Elliott will want to focus more on becoming a mainstay in the Reds’ side and potentially the long-term Mo Salah replacement than feeding this speculation over his religious beliefs.
