Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers has undoubtedly been one of the breakout players of the 2024-25 season in the Premier League. In his first full season at the Birmingham club, Rogers has locked down a spot in manager Unai Emery’s first-choice starting 11 and helped his team reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since the 1982-83 season — when it was still called the European Cup. 

Rogers also earned his first-ever England call-up and made his full debut in a World Cup qualification match against Latvia. 

The latter achievement is especially impressive considering the glut of attacking midfielders and wingers Rogers is competing against to appear for the Three Lions, which includes Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford. 

A couple of those players have had recent injury issues that opened up a spot for Thomas Tuchel to include Rogers in the new England manager’s first squad, but the actual playing time Rogers was trusted with indicates that he’s in the early mix for a spot in the next World Cup squad.

Given his current success, one might assume that Rogers’ pedigree meant he was destined for the kind of career it seems like he’ll have. And while that’s not entirely incorrect, Rogers has had a more interesting route to the heights of English football than you’d expect. 

Now 22 years old, Rogers did not graduate from the Villa academy, instead coming through West Bromwich Albion’s system, a club that has not played Premier League football at the senior level since the 2020-21 season.  

Rogers disembarked the West Brom ship for Manchester City in 2019, with City paying €4.4 million for the hot prospect, hoping he’d challenge for a first-team place down the line. Except that never came to fruition, and like many a young prospect, Rogers went on a series of loan moves with varying success. 

He first played consistent senior football in League One, the not-so-aptly named third tier of English football, with Lincoln City, tallying eight goal contributions in 28 appearances. Solid start, right? Well, his next spell with Bournemouth in the Championship yielded just 17 appearances and a single goal. One step forward, one step sideways. 

His next move to Blackpool, also in the second tier, hardly went better. Rogers played consistently over the half-season duration of his loan but still finished with just one goal and one assist.

Given Rogers’ seemingly stagnating development, City decided to cut the club’s losses and sell Rogers to Middlesborough for €1.2 million, about a 75% loss on the price City paid to acquire him as a 17-year-old. With the benefit of hindsight, that decision now looks like selling Apple stock in 2006. Rogers spent just half a season balling out for Middlesborough before Villa snapped him up in the winter 2024 transfer window, and the rest is (recent) history. 

Now, at this stage in the column, I typically wax lyrical about the player’s statistical profile. But I think Rogers’ path to relative stardom is a little more interesting than just a pure reflection of what he does or doesn’t do on the pitch. 

Many of Rogers’ peers in and around the England squad had a pretty linear path to their current destination. Foden was a star in City’s academy, and the club’s legendary manager, Pep Guardiola, clearly earmarked him for a crucial role early on in his tenure. 

Palmer was also clearly a cut above on the sky-blue side of Manchester, but after playing a bit-part role for City’s senior team during the 2022-23 season, he made a fairly high-profile move to Chelsea in search of regular minutes. Bellingham broke out in the Championship for Birmingham City as a 16-year-old before playing three seasons of Champions League football for Borussia Dortmund in Germany and becoming a €100 million man for Real Madrid (€113 million, to be precise). 

Rogers might never quite crack that tier of excellence, but he’s clearly proven he can operate in similarly good teams in the same competitions. City initially wrote Rogers off, but the club probably wishes he were in its squad this season, if City’s senior management was being honest. 

Rogers’ current success should remind us that, for some players, accumulating considerable experience playing senior football can still serve their development well, even if the results aren’t totally there. Before Rogers ever appeared in a Premier League game for Villa, he had made 101 appearances in senior men’s football. 

So, by the time Rogers arrived in Birmingham, he had less of an adjustment to make to the top level than many other Premier League academy graduates. His time at Middlesborough clearly helped him gain confidence, finally scoring regularly at the Championship level, before Villa gave him a platform to explode this season. 

Not all players have a clear, “y = mx + b” slope towards reaching their potential. Rogers clearly stalled out and struggled in certain places, but his journey from England’s south coast with Bournemouth to the north with Middlesborough helped him prepare for greatness in the Midlands. And now that he’s here, I think we’re no less than obligated to enjoy his buttery touch with the ball at his feet. 

Jack Hallinan is a senior writing about the top wunderkinds in men’s and women’s soccer in his column, “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Thursday.