The rapid rise of Morgan Rogers, a Premier League record-breaker

Morgan Rogers is thinking about freedom. The kind he has always wanted on afootballpitch: to just play.

"My game is still based off instinct and what I see," he says, dressed in a blue hoodie after training. "So if I'm allowed that thought and feeling on the pitch, you're going to get the best version of me.

That becomes harder when you have £117 million attached to your name, play for Chelsea and England, and millions of people are watching. Modern football is increasingly ruled by data, with everything a player does watched, measured and picked apart: goals, assists, minutes, distance covered, chances created.

Rogers, though, has always loved players who made football look spontaneous. He singles out Neymar, Paul Pogba and Mesut Özil - players with spirit and freedom".

Funnily enough, he says, they were often players fans loved to criticise. That was part of what drew him to them: "I liked the fact they'd still go out there and be the same versions of them.

I always used to like the people that people used to hate on because I felt like once they came out and did the same thing again and again, people didn't like it because it was so easy and effortless to them." It's a confidence Rogers says he wants for himself. But professional football can squeeze that out of you.

"It's hard to just be you, because you can get lost in so many different things, with so many people telling you to be them," says the 24-year-old. "The biggest skill in football is to still be you when everything is going on." Since joining Aston Villa in 2024, Rogers has become one of the Premier League's most exciting attacking players, with a habit of scoring from almost anywhere.

He bagged a Champions League hat-trick in January 2025. Last season, he helped Villa win the Europa League, scoring in the final.