{"id":837281,"date":"2026-09-05T11:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837281\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:20:15","slug":"the-rise-and-rise-of-morgan-rogers-the-117m-footballer-who-never-forgot-his-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837281\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise and rise of Morgan Rogers, the \u00a3117m footballer who never forgot his roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story can be traced back to the council-run park, with its faded white markings and weather-beaten goalposts, where an ordinary boy with extraordinary talent came into view almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

Up the hill, past the cemetery and through the metal gates, word quickly got round that the then five-year-old Morgan Rogers was on another level to the other kids playing on the pitches of Halas Hawks Under-Sevens in the Stourbridge & District Youth Football League.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorgan was different to everybody else,\u201d recalls Brian Wilkes, a club stalwart and long-standing committee member. \u201cHe was stronger. He knew how to shield the ball. And he had a tremendous shot \u2014 if there was a penalty shootout, we had to put an adult in the goal (against him) because it wasn\u2019t fair on the other kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographs from the time offer a glimpse into Rogers\u2019 early life, taking his first steps on the journey that has brought him to Chelsea this summer as the most expensive footballer in the English game.<\/p>\n

One picture shows a schoolboy Rogers at the Hawks\u2019 annual presentation evening, wearing a tie in their red and blue colours. Others show him, aged six, in a tracksuit top with \u2018MR\u2019 on the breast. Or there are snaps of his trophies from the 2009-10 season \u2013 one for the most man-of-the-match awards, another as the team\u2019s leading scorer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe joined us in 2008 and scored 62 goals in his first season,\u201d says Wilkes. \u201cEven from 20 or 30 yards, he could strike the ball so cleanly. The manager moved him into defence for his second season, and he still managed to get 42 goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Morgan Rogers\u2019 first pitch at Homer Hill on the outskirts of Birmingham (Daniel Taylor\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n

The scene is Homer Hill, in the Cradley district of Halesowen, West Midlands, just a misplaced kick from the primary school, Colley Lane, where Rogers\u2019 childhood affinity to local club West Bromwich Albion never stopped him trying to re-enact the stepovers of Cristiano Ronaldo, his first football hero, in the playground.<\/p>\n

Albion\u2019s ground, The Hawthorns, is just a few miles away \u2014 England\u2019s highest stadium, at 168 metres above sea level. Homer Hill, as the name suggests, is also at no little altitude, and bitterly exposed to the elements when winter arrives. Which might explain why another picture of the six-year-old Rogers shows him wrapped up warm in a woolly hat.<\/p>\n

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\n Rogers, aged six, in his Halas Hawks kit (Halas Hawks)<\/p>\n

A few miles in the other direction is Stourbridge, the town where a young Jude Bellingham used to line up for one of the Hawks\u2019 neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good friends now,\u201d says Pauline Hickman, another long-standing part of the club\u2019s operation. \u201cThe No 9 bus route takes you from Halesowen to Stourbridge. So, during the World Cup, we nicknamed Morgan and Jude as \u2018The No 9 Boys\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did they ever face each other in a Hawks-Stourbridge derby? It seems feasible, though nobody here seems absolutely certain. Bellingham, of course, was quickly snapped up by Birmingham City\u2019s academy, whereas Rogers was only at Hawks for two years before West Brom invited him to join their youth system.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers took this photo together while playing for England U15s \ud83d\udcf8\ud83d\udd19<\/p>\n

9 years later, they\u2019re at the World Cup together \u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\udc4f pic.twitter.com\/OqbdAwfG8R<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) June 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

He also had an offer from Birmingham\u2019s Aston Villa at the same time but, looking back, the following years were really the making of Rogers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always a very intelligent and articulate lad,\u201d says Mike Scott, then one of the coaches at West Brom. \u201cWe used to say to him, \u2018You\u2019ll be a good coach one day\u2019, because he was so intelligent. He really understood the game and, for a boy of that age, he was very curious; always asking questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott, now head of academy coaching at Birmingham City, was one of several West Brom coaches who were instrumental in the youngster\u2019s development, from under-nines up to the age of 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always classed as one of our elite players,\u201d says Scott. \u201cThere was a period, around the age of 13 and 14, when he slowed a little as he went through his growth. Then everything suddenly clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the age of 15, Rogers was not only in the England Under-16s squad, while still taking his GCSEs at school, but also training with West Brom\u2019s first team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember saying to him, \u2018You need to make sure it doesn\u2019t go to your head\u2019,\u201d says Scott. \u201cYou get some young players who train with the first team and think they have made it. Not Morgan, though. He was always very focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 16, he started the season with the under-18s and, in the first fixture, he scored two at Newcastle. It was too easy for him. The following game, we played Liverpool, and it was too easy for him again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, he went up to the under-21s, but he\u2019d still play in the FA Youth Cup, and he was never one of those players who\u2019d struggle if they were asked to come back down (an age level). He would just be the best player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played Lincoln on the way to the 2019 FA Youth Cup semi-finals, and he must have beaten five players for one goal. Then we were drawn against Arsenal, with Bukayo Saka, in the fifth round and Morgan came into his own again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the quarter-finals, against Everton, he was the standout player again. Then we played Manchester City in the semis, and that was probably one of the games that convinced City to think, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to put in a bid for him\u2019. They had been trailing him for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Morgan Rogers\u2019 abilities were evident at West Brom as a teenager (Nick Taylor\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Academy reports from the time detail the player\u2019s \u201cfantastic mentality\u201d, making his West Brom first-team debut at the age of 16 \u2013 an 82nd-minute substitute in a February 2019 FA Cup fourth-round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion \u2013 and winning various trophies, including the National Schools Cup, with Sandwell Academy, the secondary school that runs a football education programme in tandem with the club.<\/p>\n

That attitude has served Rogers well during the following years, signing for City shortly after his 17th birthday, then moving on to Middlesbrough and truly blossoming after a February 2024 move to Villa, launching his senior England career in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best player I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure to work with and see develop,\u201d Scott concludes. \u201cAnd the kid has earned what has come his way, playing in a World Cup semi-final and being worth all that money, because he had that drive from a young age. He was a coach\u2019s dream, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this corner of the Midlands, a lot of the people who know the Rogers family talk about the positive influence of his parents, Deborah and Howard, a former firefighter who was known as \u2018H\u2019 to his colleagues at Brierley Hill fire station during 30-plus years in the job.<\/p>\n

Among the tattoos on Rogers\u2019 left arm, there are the dates of his parents\u2019 birthdays, as well as those of his brothers, Daniel and Ash. Scott recalls there being an \u201cexcellent and supportive\u201d family network. Rogers himself<\/a> has talked about how \u201cmy parents did everything for me \u2026 they took me to every camp, every game, every training session\u201d.<\/p>\n

Well done fire fighter Howard Rogers completing thirty years service today with the wmfs. pic.twitter.com\/1BaRo9ktXc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Brierley Hill Fire Station (@WMFSBrierleyH) July 7, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n

As for the other influences in his life, Rogers made sure to pay tribute when he heard that Bob Hickman, his first coach at Halas Hawks, had passed away in April. Bob was Pauline\u2019s husband, one of the Hawks\u2019 driving forces since the club\u2019s formation in 1980.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe football family has kept me going,\u201d Pauline tells The Athletic. \u201cThen my son, Rob, came in with his phone one day and said, \u2018Mum, you better sit down, I\u2019ve got something to show you.\u2019 It was Morgan\u2019s Twitter account. He\u2019d heard what had happened and posted three little hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in Italy at the time with Villa, preparing for the Europa League quarter-final against Bologna, and it meant the world to me that he still found the time to remember Bob.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Bob were season-ticket holders at Villa Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always wear something from Halas Hawks to games,\u201d she says, pointing to the club\u2019s badge on her shorts. \u201cSo when Morgan started playing for Villa, I wanted to tell everyone in the ground, \u2018We coached him!\u2019 I was so proud, and I\u2019m still proud, even though he\u2019s now at Chelsea. To me, he\u2019s still got Bob\u2019s spirit with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Morgan Rogers in his old Halas Hawks kit (Halas Hawks)<\/p>\n

The funeral took place on the day of the Europa League final.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorgan scored,\u201d says Pauline, recalling Villa\u2019s 3-0 win over German club Freiburg in Istanbul. And now she can smile. \u201cWe all said, \u2018That\u2019s for Bob\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A picture is emerging of a 24-year-old who has never forgotten his roots. Rogers even interrupted his holiday last year to send a video message, via his mum, to the Hawks\u2019 end-of-season awards event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted the kids to know that he remembered being in their position, sitting at the presentation, and that if they put in the hard work and had a bit of luck, they could also live their dreams and achieve what he had done,\u201d says Wilkes. \u201cWe showed it five times over one weekend, to around 650 players and 1,500 parents, and it got a standing ovation each time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Pauline Hickman and Brian Wilkes (Daniel Taylor\/The Athletic)<\/p>\n

This weekend, Rogers is set to take on Premier League champions Arsenal, who also showed serious interest in signing him<\/a> over the summer. Instead, he went to Chelsea, linking up again with Cole Palmer, a close pal from their days in City\u2019s academy. He has settled in seamlessly: Xabi Alonso\u2019s team have won their first two Premier League fixtures, scoring seven goals in the process, and the wearer of their No 17 shirt has been at the heart of it, starting both and contributing a goal and an assist.<\/p>\n

As for Halas Hawks, they established themselves as the largest junior club in the area, running 52 teams for boys and girls aged six to 17, before merging last year with semi-professional Halesowen Town of the Southern League Premier Division (Central), which is six rungs below the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Halesowen, like Chelsea, used to have their own \u2018Shed\u2019 terrace at their home ground, The Grove, but junior matches are still played at Homer Hill, where a dedicated team of volunteers store their equipment in a small red-brick building by the side of the main pitch.<\/p>\n

It is, in short, a classic scene of grassroots English football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a game on, you\u2019ll see all the little stalls by the side of the pitch,\u201d says Pauline. \u201cThat\u2019s how they get their money \u2014 selling coffee and tea. It\u2019s a world away from \u00a360million transfers in the Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Rogers celebrates scoring his first official Chelsea goal at Fulham (Mike Hewitt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Or, indeed, \u00a3117million in Rogers\u2019 case<\/a>. It\u2019s mind-boggling money \u2013 a transfer record for a British player \u2013 and a shame, perhaps, that the team where everything began won\u2019t see a penny of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Morgan left West Brom to go to Manchester City, it was for \u00a34million,\u201d says Wilkes. \u201cSo we wrote to City asking if they would consider providing us with a percentage of the transfer fee. It was tongue-in-cheek. We weren\u2019t expecting anything \u2014 \u2018We\u2019ll try it on\u2019, we thought \u2014 so we asked for something really silly, like 0.0001 per cent. It would have worked out at \u00a3400. But we got nothing back. No reply, nothing. Not even a bag of balls, which would have been a godsend at our level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe Chelsea could spare a few balls. Rogers\u2019 first involvement at Halas Hawks, aged five, was in the Little Kickers section. David Davis, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers (another local pro club) and Birmingham defender, is also an ex-Hawk, as is Josh Marsh, a striker for fourth-tier Crewe Alexandra.<\/p>\n

Halas, in case you are wondering, is the medieval word for Halesowen, the town where future Manchester United, Leeds United and England winger Lee Sharpe also grew up. There aren\u2019t too many Chelsea fans here. But it is fair to say a new hero has emerged in a part of the Midlands that, until now, has been better known for its industry \u2014 chain-making, mostly \u2014 and being one of the country\u2019s biggest towns (population: 60,000) without a railway station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see so many boys and girls wearing England shirts these days with \u2018Rogers\u2019 and No 17 on the back,\u201d says Wilkes. \u201cEven as a five-year-old, you could see how comfortable he was with the ball. And that has never changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you see now with Chelsea and, before that, Villa, he did that with us.\u201d<\/p>\n