Harvey Elliott: “I was close to going to Real Madrid, but I’m a Liverpool fan”
Reds midfielder Harvey Elliott reveals that he almost signed for Real Madrid and gave his reasons for not going to the Santiago Bernabéu.
Harvey Elliott is one of the great promises at Liverpool, with whom he has already played in 41 official matches this season. He made his debut just a few months after joining the team from Fulham, in 2019, and last season he became the club’s youngest player to feature in the starting XI in in a European match when he lined up against Inter Milan, aged 18 years and 318 days old. But Elliott, who turned 20 last week, confesses that before his arrival at Anfield, he almost went to another club - Real Madrid.
“I did. It was just a mixture of things to be honest. I was close to going to Madrid, and I think Liverpool came in. As soon as I heard they had come for me, that was it, my heart was set on it. Just because, mainly, being a Liverpool fan, like all the family,” Elliott told the We Are Liverpool podcast. He was still in school when Liverpool met Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final in Kyiv - a game he went to, as a 15-year-old, with his father. When the two clubs met in this year’s edition at the Round of 16 stage, Elliott starred in both legs, coming on as a substitute.
Lifelong fan
“Being a Liverpool supporter, my whole family’s Liverpool as well. It was my dad’s dream to play for Liverpool himself, but he didn’t quite make it. My little brother is also a massive fan, probably one of the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life. He always coming up to me with information about the team that I don’t even know about - he doesn’t even play for the team and I’m like: ‘Where did you get that from?!’, I’ve never seen him so happy in my life. “For me, it’s my dream. Playing for the club, being able to live in the city, the people around it - seeing everyone come together as a community, as a city... for me there’s no place like it. Just the buzz around the city, it’s unbelievable. All my family have moved up here, it was the best possible move I could make,” explained Elliott who has contributed five goals so far for Klopp’s Liverpool this season. An Under-21 international for England. if he continues his progression it won’t be long before he makes his debut for England.