Fabinho, Thiago…and Harvey Elliott. 18 years old, seven games in his short service record with Liverpool, but Jürgen Klopp gave him the keys to the engine room of the starting eleven net for the San Siro assault against Inter Milan. No sign of the team’s colonel general, Jordan Henderson, his watchword for a game of the highest caliber. This is how the boy from Chertsey fulfilled his dream, who became the Youngest Liverpool player to make his Champions League debute, at 18 years and 318 days, beating Trent Alexander-Arnold by 36 days (18 years and 354 days), another who has ended up becoming a club icon.
But the story of Harvey Elliott, which is practically still a trailer, goes to film. He is ahead of his time. His career is going so fast that his promising present overlaps with his bright future. Authorized languages say it. “He’s brilliant, and considering what he’s been through too…he made quite an impression,” said Michael Owen, someone who knows very well what it’s like to wear the ‘wunderkind’ sign. In his first Champions intervention, Elliott showed that the trade is not at odds with ageresisting the harassment of bulldozers like Arturo Vidal or Brozovic and sacrificing individual brilliance for the collective good.
From record to record
He has just come of age but is already collecting records. Being the youngest Liverpool player to play in European competition is just the latest mark of his precocity. he is also the youngest in history to make his debut for Fulhamfifteen years old, and with Liverpool, with 16 years and 174 days. By then she was already peeping into a wonder kid wanting to take on the world.
But also from the Premier Leagueaged 16 years and 30 days, shortly before the networks They paid almost two million euros after falling in love with his talent. “He didn’t come out to break a record. He came in because he deserves it and has shown quality,” Scott Parker, his coach at the time, said at the time. Even from the Carabao Cup. In the English League Cup he made his debut at the age of fifteen years and 174 days, before facing a high school exam the next day. “He had some exams and I didn’t know if he could play. I gave him the opportunity to prove himself at the highest level and he showed great personality,” Fulham manager Slavia Jokanovic said.
From ordeal to fairy tale
After do the military successfully at Blackburn Rovers, returned to Liverpool. Seven goals and eleven assists that Klopp took good note of, with a plan to progressively couple him to the team’s particular gear. In fact, by the second Premier League game he was already a starter, playing the 90′ in two consecutive games… until Pascal Struijk shattered his ankle at Elland Road in the match against Leeds United. Right at the worst time.
Far from pitying himself, he showed off the immense capacity for work that Klopp boasts of and cut the expected recovery times, returning on February 6, against Cardiff City in the round of 32 of the FA Cup, with a goal. A wink of fate, which had a reward in store for him. “It’s hard to put into words what I feel. My family and I will always remember this much. I’m back and the injury is behind me,” said Elliott.
“His goal has turned his story into a fairy tale. When he scored, his serious injury at Leeds was on my mind. He was very patient and followed all the right steps. He still needs time, but we could see that he’s still an incredible footballer”. These were the words of Klopp, who celebrated the goal with his right eye as if it were something personal. He later shot it with 30′ against Crystal Palace and made him rest against Burnley. Something big awaited him, and growing up: the Champions League. “When we qualified for the round of 16 he was injured, I told him: ‘Now you will play in the Champions League,’ revealed the German coach. His confidence in him is unshakable.
Salah’s substitute
The Harvey Elliott thing is not hype of a day Everyone who knows him has been impressed by The chosen one. “Everyone asks me about Harvey. When an 18-year-old plays as a starter and in such a mature way, questions are normal, but I’m not surprised. He can play midfielder, winger… We wanted to try him in midfield. Haggle, pass... He is a different footballer, an exceptional talent. He has no pressure. He is the type of player we need”, Klopp continued to reveal on the eve of the game against Inter, which ended up placing him as a midfielder on the left.
“I am absolutely amazed that he came back so quickly, looking so good. I think this is the biggest vote of confidence, to be brought back to the team in such a game, away from home in the Champions League,” added Owen. Another legend of the team also bowed to his charms, comparing it with other fleeting irruptions: “It makes you think that Liverpool have a special playernot just a good player”, confessed Jamie Carragher to Goal. “You think about how young he is, the players we’ve had at that age who were really special: Owen, Fowler, Sterling…you’ve seen Trent get to that age. Sometimes you see someone who is just special.”
Carragher even proposed him as the Pharaoh’s replacement: “Maybe he’s not the same type of player as Salah, but a guy who plays on the right and goes in with that left foot…Maybe he’ll be more creative or maybe he’ll score fewer goals.. Who knows, but he is definitely a special player and, in the next 18 months, you will have to find him a place in the team because you have to do it with players of that quality.”
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