From Halesowen Hill to Stamford Bridge: Morgan Rogers' Road to Growth

The story can be traced back almost 20 years, when faded white lines and weathered goalposts on a council-run park pitch witnessed a gifted boy beginning to show his talent.

Up the hillside, past the cemetery and through the metal gates, word quickly spread: Morgan Rogers, then just five years old, was far ahead of the other children in the Hales Hawks U7 youth team. The team competed in the Stourbridge district youth football league.

"Morgan was different from the others," recalled senior club committee member Brian Wilkes. "He was stronger, knew how to protect the ball, and had incredible shooting power — if there was a penalty shootout, we had to put an adult in goal, otherwise it would not have been fair on the other children."

Photographs from that time offer a glimpse into Rogers' early life, which was the starting point of his journey before he joined Chelsea this summer as the most expensive player in English football.

One photograph shows Rogers wearing a red-and-blue tie at the Hales Hawks club's annual awards ceremony. Other pictures show him at the age of six wearing a sports jacket with "MR" embroidered on the chest. There are also trophy photographs from the 2009-10 season — one for the most man-of-the-match awards and another for the team's top scorer award.

"He joined us in 2008 and scored 62 goals in his first season," Wilkes said. "Even from 20 or 30 yards away, he could strike the ball cleanly and decisively. In his second season, the coach moved him to defence, and he still scored 42 goals."

The story takes place in Homer Hill in the Cradley area of Halesowen, West Midlands, just a mis-hit kick away from Colley Lane Primary School. Rogers grew up as a West Bromwich Albion supporter, but that never stopped him from imitating his first football idol, Cristiano Ronaldo's stepovers, on the playground.

West Brom's home ground, The Hawthorns, is only a few miles away and is the highest-altitude stadium in England, at 168 metres above sea level.