Though it feels that we’ve been hearing his name for quite some time now, Harvey Elliott is just 21. A Liverpool fan from childhood, Elliott joined the Reds five seasons back. The Fulham academy graduate is the youngest to feature in the PL at 16 years and 30 days.
Born in a family of Liverpool fans, Elliott started playing at a very young age. His father Scott Elliott and mother Janine were extremely supportive of Harvey’s dreams. During an interview, Elliott spoke about how his parents sacrificed the dreams of their other children to help Harvey reach the heights.
Harvey said to SoccerBible, “They’ve made sacrifices, from not really spending as much time as maybe my mum and dad wanted to with them, because they would have had to take me to training, or take me to games or take me to I don’t know, like gym sessions or something like that. So they’ve given up their valuable time to spend with the other kids as well.”
‘Football mad’ Dad
Harvey’s father, particularly, had a huge hand in his training and upbringing. Scott, according to Harvey, had instilled the basics of acting as a professional from an early age.
In an interview, Harvey mentioned, “My dad has always drilled that into me- cross the line and that’s it, let your football do your talking. Have that confidence, have that swagger but as soon as you come off you need to chill out, compose yourself and realise that at the end of the day no one’s better than anyone else in life.” These are advice very few can impart and go on to show how Harvey was brought up with the right values.
Harvey’s QPR coach Scott Chickelday said, “Harvey’s dad pushed him and encouraged him. He would do work with him outside the training. He supported him completely, every training session and game he was always there. Him and Harvey are both football mad.”
Harvey Elliott with his dad Scott (right above him, in pink tee)
Scott, among all others, has always been extremely proud of his son’s accomplishments. When Harvey Elliott scored the first goal for Liverpool against Cardiff in a 3-1 win, a proud and emotional Scott was in the crowd. Even as a child, Harvey always had his dad during his training sessions.
As a lifetime fan of the club, Scott didn’t shy away from asking the Kop for a nice chant for his son. And his request was simple, “He would like nothing more than a song from the Kop but he’s got to earn that, you’ve got to earn it – you’re not given it. If anyone does a song from the Kop, my favourite song of all time was for Fernando Torres.”
Harvey Elliott: The Youngest Premier League debutant
The ‘Mad-Dad’ shared an anecdote from Harvey’s childhood that made him sanguine about his son’s talent. At Brighton, on a beach, Scott remembered how his son put the ball through a small hole in a fair.
“So I had my three shots and I was close to be fair, I was a bit gutted and then I said: ‘Here you go Harvs, have a go at this’, I put the ball down and me and his Mum were just standing there and he laced it straight through,” remembered Scott.
A young Harvey Elliott wearing a Torres kit
After his youth days with QPR, Harvey joined Fulham’s academy. His coach, Dan Thomas, remembered Harvey as a technically gifted player. He told The Athletic, “I can clearly remember the first session [he] had with us after coming on trial from QPR when [he was] 12. It was a tight little possession game with Harvey in the middle. It was a case of, ‘OK, let’s see what this kid has got’. I was struck by how good he was playing off one touch, flicking things around the corner. He wasn’t big, strong or powerful but very clever with good awareness. He wasn’t a massive talent punching you in the face at that point but you could see he had a lot of technical ability.”
Harvey joined the ranks at Fulham and on May 4, 2019, he became the youngest ever player to play in the PL at 16 years and 30 days old. And just in a couple of months, he went on to join Liverpool, and like all dreams that come true, this too came as a surprise. During their trip to Portugal, Harvey came to know that Jurgen Klopp wanted to sign him. Despite having far more lucrative offers on the table, Anfield was the star Harvey always wanted to touch.
A Liverpool fan by birth, the 21-year-old is the truest example of what someone can achieve with a little help from family.
