{"id":1967937,"date":"2026-06-02T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967937"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:00:00","slug":"morgan-rogers-the-england-players-scenic-route-to-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967937","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Rogers: The England player\u2019s scenic route to stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/0-306-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446241.png&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article longread\">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/70340\/1\/morgan-rogers-england-world-cup-2026-interview-aston-villa-football-arsenal\" data-article-id=\"70340\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-portrait-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img no-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.75\" data-template=\"Longread Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"MORGAN\" class=\"img\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446241.png\" width=\"1080\"><\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-06-02T11:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 June 2026\"><span class=\"month\">DateInMeta<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/the-summer-2026-issue\">The Summer 2026 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Morgan Rogers: The England player\u2019s scenic route <span class=\"nowrap\">to stardom<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>\u2018Playing for England is everything I\u2019ve ever wanted\u2019: For the Brummie-born football prodigy, it\u2019s ice-cold focus and ambition \u2013 not just talent \u2013 that has brought his World Cup dream <span class=\"nowrap\">within reach<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-06-02T11:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 June 2026\"><span class=\"month\">June<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/the-summer-2026-issue\">The Summer 2026 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-06-02T11:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 June 2026\"><span class=\"month\">June<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/JacobDavey\"><br \/>\nJacob Davey<br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Photography\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Photography<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/KingsleyIfill\"><br \/>\nKingsley Ifill<br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Styling\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Styling<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/DavidBradshaw\"><br \/>\nDavid Bradshaw<br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Morgan Rogers, The Summer <span class=\"nowrap\">2026 Issue<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/0\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1040\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-46-1560-1040\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" width=\"1560\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/1\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-405-960-640\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445970.jpg\" width=\"960\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/2\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"716\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-236-1075-716\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445971.jpg\" width=\"1075\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/3\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/159-321-729-486\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" width=\"729\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/4\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"629\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-267-944-629\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" width=\"944\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/5\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"732\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-297-1098-732\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445975.jpg\" width=\"1098\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>This story is taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from June 5. Pre-order a copy of the magazine <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boutiquemags.com\/dpa\/add\/tocart\/id\/14592\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You can tell a lot about a person from the mobile network they\u2019re on. The phone rings somewhere along the M40. It cuts out. I\u2019m trying to get hold of Morgan Rogers \u2013 one of the most exciting footballers in the Premier League, the second youngest English player to score a Champions League hat-trick and the reigning PFA young player of the year \u2013 on his way down to London for his Dazed cover shoot. I try again. Then the answerphone kicks in. Welcome to the Tesco Mobile voicemail service.<\/p>\n<p>When I bring it up, he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s the same number I\u2019ve had since I was 15,\u201d he says. \u201cI just never saw a reason to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We meet a few hours later at the Barbican. Photographer Kingsley Ifill is already set up when Rogers arrives, wearing a splash of bright Burberry checks that cut through the estate\u2019s monotonous concrete like a signal flare. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder may be a stranger around these parts, but he moves through the brutalist walkways as if he belongs here, gliding up and down the staircases with unhurried ease.<\/p>\n<p>In person, Rogers is taller than he appears on television. The physical presence that wrongfoots Premier League defenders registers differently up close; there is a solidity to him, a gravitational quality that the camera flattens. Those who know the Aston Villa player away from football will tell you he has always been the loudest person in the room \u2013 the class clown, the one keeping everyone going, the person teammates at both Villa and England fall in around naturally. But on the pitch, Rogers is pure tunnel vision. \u201cI know my job, and I try to do my best,\u201d he says, between setups. \u201cI\u2019m not really good at doing two things at once.\u201d Under Villa boss Unai Emery, whose demands are total and whose attention to detail borders on the forensic, that singular focus has become Rogers\u2019 most potent quality. He says that Emery\u2019s instruction has been simple and constant: \u201cTry, try, try.\u201d With that effort came extra confidence. The goals soon followed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"dd18a4b2-5627-472e-a7a2-b45701052536\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/946\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.7\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/946\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" width=\"946\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Cotton polo <span class=\"nowrap\">shirt Burberry<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"d39d7ef9-1294-4e5e-a7a9-b45701052461\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1081\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.8\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1081\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" width=\"1081\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Leather jacket Burberry<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers grew up in Halesowen, just outside of Birmingham, the middle of three brothers in a household where his dad, a fireman, established early and often that how you carry yourself is the first thing people see. The laces tied properly before every session, the boots clean. \u201c[It\u2019s not negotiable] to have respect for the game,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cIf you give yourself respect, you\u2019ll get more out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Skinner once said that a lifetime of being told your accent sounds stupid doesn\u2019t encourage you to stay faithful to it. He said it in 2002, the same year that Rogers was born, then spent the next decade making era-defining anthems from the same streets the footballer grew up near. \u201cPeople hate on Birmingham so much,\u201d Rogers says, smiling, in his own thick Brummie accent. \u201cI like that.\u201d The negativity, the dismissiveness: he takes it all and channels it into something clinical on the pitch. \u201cThe fact that I\u2019m from there, I can try and be positive about it. It\u2019s just about how you deal with it. [You can] use it to your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the pitch, Rogers was moved up two age groups at six years old because he was operating at a level his peers couldn\u2019t match. \u201cI remember feeling like I was going against these giant people with insane strength,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYou have to find different ways to be successful.\u201d When Rogers signed for Manchester City in 2019, fresh from West Brom\u2019s academy, the assumption was that he\u2019d rise rapidly as one of the country\u2019s best prospects. What came next was something else. Loan move after loan move followed, to Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool. Each one was supposed to be a platform, but each move was more complicated than the next. Bournemouth was the hardest, though, with Rogers far from home, further away from the team sheet, and nowhere near the player he believed himself to be. \u201cI\u2019d never experienced that before,\u201d he says. \u201cHaving to deal with not playing is one thing, but I wasn\u2019t anywhere near it. [I wasn\u2019t] getting the chance to show what I could do.\u201d He was frustrated with decisions not going his way. But he shifted his mindset: \u201cIf I let it affect my headspace, then I\u2019m bringing it on myself. And then there\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What held him together was his family, his mother answering the phone every night during those long months on the south coast. \u201cI just remember being on the phone every day, expressing how I felt; my family were giving me advice and telling me how to deal with it.\u201d He looks briefly like the teenager he was then. \u201cThey\u2019ve always been massive for me.\u201d Meanwhile, Rogers\u2019 closest friends in football, Jacob Ramsey and Cole Palmer, get a Snapchat almost every day. When I ask him if he\u2019s told either of them about today\u2019s shoot, he looks almost puzzled. \u201cNah,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d rather just do things before I speak about them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201c[Playing for England] is everything you ever wanted. But you don\u2019t want it to overwhelm you. You\u2019ve got a job to do\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers\u2019 career truly began to take off under Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough, where he bagged seven goals and eight assists as well as becoming the Carabao Cup\u2019s top scorer in the 2023\/24 season. He was then offered the chance to fulfil a huge homecoming move. Securing an \u00a38m transfer to Aston Villa, Rogers returned to the West Midlands, back within a few miles of where he grew up.<\/p>\n<p>What he has done since defies straightforward statistical logic. This season, Rogers is repeatedly scoring goals that break the algorithms of most data models. For the true football nerds out there, the cumulative probability of him scoring the specific goals he has, from the specific positions he took them, is one in 1.6 million. Rogers laughs in slight disbelief when I mention it. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen that, nah,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice when they go in, because I do practise it, I do work on it. But I also want to get the rubbish goals. The easier ones are more likely to get me further than those. I can\u2019t keep relying on the good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those long shots have a specific influence behind them. His GOAT is Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he watched obsessively on YouTube growing up, turning his back garden in Halesowen into a makeshift training ground for techniques with the senior squad before he\u2019d had time to process it. The interim England manager, Lee Carsley, pulled him aside. A few days later, he was walking out in Athens as a fully fledged England international. \u201cIt\u2019s everything you ever wanted,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you don\u2019t want it to overwhelm you. There\u2019s a game on. You\u2019ve got a job to do.\u201d He scored his first England goal against Wales at Wembley last October. The World Cup is this summer, and he\u2019ll do anything to be a part of it<\/p>\n<p>Rogers\u2019 most direct competition for an England starting place is someone he grew up alongside: Stourbridge and Real Madrid\u2019s Jude Bellingham. Laughing off the notion of taking his spot, Rogers is adamant that the competition between them is healthy. \u201cThe media put us in the same category, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re the same type of player at all. We have different styles, different things we\u2019re good at. I think we bring different things to the team.\u201d His next response makes clear that competition and friendship are not mutually exclusive. \u201cIt\u2019d actually be nice to play together. I want to play with the best players regularly, and he\u2019s one of the best. Why wouldn\u2019t I want that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"bba69c39-03e8-45a0-97d7-b45701052013\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1560\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.41\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1108\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1560\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" width=\"1560\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Leather jacket, cotton shirt, wool trousers and leather shoes Burberry, silver <span class=\"nowrap\">bracelet Bunney<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Every goal Rogers scores is capped off with the same celebration. Arms crossed, shoulders rubbed, face completely still: the cold celebration has become one of the defining images of the last few Premier League seasons. Cole Palmer borrowed it; it has since been adopted by athletes across different sports worldwide. But the celebration crystallises that had no business being attempted by a teenager from the West Midlands. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to be able to do it exactly like him, but I would get in the back garden and try,\u201d says Rogers. \u201cI was no different to everyone else. I was trying to be my idol.\u201d Growing up in Halesowen had its other pleasures too, of course. He laughs when reminiscing about his favourite Brum takeaway. Would he even be from the West Midlands if he didn\u2019t say he missed kebabs? Today, sadly, they\u2019re off limits. His diet is different now. The margins for greatness are too fine.<\/p>\n<p>Rogers says he reached what he describes as his ideal flow state against Manchester City last season, during a game that carried a particular charge given his time at the club. A missed penalty against Bologna in this season\u2019s Europa League quarter-final, the kind of moment that deflates lesser players, was answered within minutes: Rogers collecting the ball, cutting on to his weaker foot and beating the keeper at his near post. At his best, he\u2019s irrepressible.<\/p>\n<p>Revealing what he\u2019s excited for next, it\u2019s clear that the summer is already on his mind. (Rogers is likely valued by Villa at around \u00a3100m and has been linked with moves to Manchester United and Chelsea.) But for now, his priorities are simple: finish the season as strongly as possible, with Villa still in the hunt for European silverware and a place in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s World Cup squad at stake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cNot everything\u2019s going to happen perfectly; it\u2019s about learning and improving every year. This is just the start of bigger things to come\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers\u2019 England debut arrived almost by accident. Initially, he was called up for the under-21s, but found himself training something deeper \u2013 a cutting, nonchalant response to years of doubt, often delivered directly to the Holte End of Villa Park. When I ask about the loan moves, the managers who doubted him, the clubs that moved him on, he is precise about what drove him through it. \u201cIt\u2019s not ever in a spiteful way,\u201d he says. \u201cI just wanted to show what I had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rogers moves through today\u2019s Burberry looks naturally, and describes his own style as \u201cunique to me \u2013 some people like it, some people don\u2019t\u201d. By 7pm, the shoot is wrapping. Rogers\u2019 publicist, Caroline, is already waiting with a ball and a Sharpie. Before he signs the ball for Dazed, the pair knock it between them; the keepy-up sesh looking particularly brazen inside a beautifully minimal living room.<\/p>\n<p>As the light begins to dwindle out over the Barbican\u2019s concrete frames, Rogers points out that his career is only just getting started. This is just his second full season of Premier League football. \u201cI sometimes have to remember I\u2019m still learning on the job,\u201d he says. \u201cNot everything\u2019s going to happen perfectly; it\u2019s about learning and improving every year. This is just the start of bigger things to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the days that follow, Rogers proves he is a man of his word. After 12 games without a goal, he finds himself back on the scoresheet: two goals and an assist, delivered in the quietly devastating fashion that has become his trademark. The doubters silenced, once again, in the only language he has ever needed. Some like it hot. Morgan Rogers has always preferred it cold.<\/p>\n<p><em>Grooming Marina Belton-Rose using Shiseido and Boucl\u00e8me, photographic assistant Braxton Gorringe, styling assistants Isabella Grace, Jon Bannister<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"article-series header tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/the-summer-2026-issue\">The Summer 2026 Issue<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/football\">football<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/morgan-rogers\">Morgan Rogers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"grid split-list__header\">\n<div class=\"section-header\">\n<div class=\"section-header__link\">\n<h2 class=\"section-header__title\">Trending<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"split-list-scene\" data-split-scene>\n<section class=\"split-list\" id=\"trending\" data-split>\n<div class=\"split-list__layout\" aria-label=\"Trending\">\n<div class=\"split-list__feature\"><a class=\"split-hero\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/70333\/1\/ilia-malinin-interview-winter-olympics-summer-2026-issue\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-hero__media\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ILIA COVER\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-310-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446204.png\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-hero__panel\">\n<div class=\"split-hero__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"split-hero__title\">Ilia Malinin breaks the ice \u2013 and his silence<\/h3>\n<p class=\"split-hero__summary\">He does things on a skating rink that were once thought impossible. But the \u2018Quad God\u2019s\u2019 setback at this year\u2019s Winter Olympics brought new fire and energy to a skater seen by many as the greatest of all time\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"split-hero__category\">Life &amp; Culture<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-list__rail\" data-split-rail>\n<div class=\"split-list__railInner\"><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/70372\/1\/horoscopes-june-2026-gemini-cancer-season-jupiter-in-leo-capricorn-full-moon\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"wildatheart\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/367-0-1553-1035\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446233.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Beauty<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Horoscopes June 2026: Love deeply, take risks, and embarrass yourself<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/article\/70355\/1\/nike-celebrates-the-culture-of-soccer-express-collection-toma\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"split-rail-card__campaign optional-paragraph\"> Nike <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"DarkSocial_Facebook_1080x1080\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-0-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446111.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Fashion<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Nike celebrates the culture of soccer ahead of a summer shaped by the game<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69941\/1\/dev-dhunsi-mixed-mack-spbh-artist-norwegian-indian-photo-book-exhibition-nordic\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dev Dhunsi, Mixed \" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-658-1260-840\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442025.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Art &amp; Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">This photo book challenges how we think about \u2018mixed\u2019 identity<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/70357\/1\/5-times-ilia-malinin-did-the-impossible-on-the-ice-skating-olympics-summer-2026\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"DC292_COV5_M5_IliaMalinin_MoniBelle_ZaraMirkin_15\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-0-1140-760\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445906.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Life &amp; Culture<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">5 times \u2018Quad God\u2019 Ilia Malinin did the impossible on the ice<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/70375\/1\/most-loved-photo-stories-may-2026-petra-collins-books-photographers\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"KUTT\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-0-2008-1338\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446240.png\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Art &amp; Photography<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Most loved photo stories of May 2026<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/article\/57454\/1\/10-of-the-hottest-instagram-accounts-fusing-art-sex-and-erotica\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"sexiest hottest art erotica Instagram\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-98-687-458\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1340\/4\/1344209.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Beauty<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">10 of the hottest Instagram accounts fusing art, sex and erotica<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/70269\/1\/7-raw-and-realistic-films-about-sex-work-sam-levinson-euphoria-anora-tangerine\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"cam1-superJumbo\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/120-0-1443-962\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445224.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Film &amp; TV<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">7 sex worker-approved films about sex work<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/70306\/1\/young-people-training-death-doulas-nicole-kidman-chloe-zhao\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hamnet-scaled\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/211-0-1920-1280\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445676.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Life &amp; Culture<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Why so many young people are training to be death doulas<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-navigation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/news\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img one\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">News<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img two\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Fashion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img three\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Music<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img four\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Film &amp; TV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/70340\/1\/morgan-rogers-england-world-cup-2026-interview-aston-villa-football-arsenal#features\" class=\"image-navigation__img five\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Features<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img six\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Beauty<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img seven\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Life &amp; Culture<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img eight\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Art &amp; Photography<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Morgan Rogers, The Summer <span class=\"nowrap\">2026 Issue<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/0\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1040\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-46-1560-1040\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" width=\"1560\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/1\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-405-960-640\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445970.jpg\" width=\"960\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/2\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"716\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-236-1075-716\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445971.jpg\" width=\"1075\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/3\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/159-321-729-486\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" width=\"729\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/4\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"629\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-267-944-629\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" width=\"944\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/gallery\/37076\/5\/morgan-rogers-the-summer-2026-issue\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"732\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-297-1098-732\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445975.jpg\" width=\"1098\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>This story is taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from June 5. Pre-order a copy of the magazine <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boutiquemags.com\/dpa\/add\/tocart\/id\/14592\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You can tell a lot about a person from the mobile network they\u2019re on. The phone rings somewhere along the M40. It cuts out. I\u2019m trying to get hold of Morgan Rogers \u2013 one of the most exciting footballers in the Premier League, the second youngest English player to score a Champions League hat-trick and the reigning PFA young player of the year \u2013 on his way down to London for his Dazed cover shoot. I try again. Then the answerphone kicks in. Welcome to the Tesco Mobile voicemail service.<\/p>\n<p>When I bring it up, he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s the same number I\u2019ve had since I was 15,\u201d he says. \u201cI just never saw a reason to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We meet a few hours later at the Barbican. Photographer Kingsley Ifill is already set up when Rogers arrives, wearing a splash of bright Burberry checks that cut through the estate\u2019s monotonous concrete like a signal flare. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder may be a stranger around these parts, but he moves through the brutalist walkways as if he belongs here, gliding up and down the staircases with unhurried ease.<\/p>\n<p>In person, Rogers is taller than he appears on television. The physical presence that wrongfoots Premier League defenders registers differently up close; there is a solidity to him, a gravitational quality that the camera flattens. Those who know the Aston Villa player away from football will tell you he has always been the loudest person in the room \u2013 the class clown, the one keeping everyone going, the person teammates at both Villa and England fall in around naturally. But on the pitch, Rogers is pure tunnel vision. \u201cI know my job, and I try to do my best,\u201d he says, between setups. \u201cI\u2019m not really good at doing two things at once.\u201d Under Villa boss Unai Emery, whose demands are total and whose attention to detail borders on the forensic, that singular focus has become Rogers\u2019 most potent quality. He says that Emery\u2019s instruction has been simple and constant: \u201cTry, try, try.\u201d With that effort came extra confidence. The goals soon followed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"dd18a4b2-5627-472e-a7a2-b45701052536\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/946\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.7\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/946\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445974.jpg\" width=\"946\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Cotton polo <span class=\"nowrap\">shirt Burberry<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"d39d7ef9-1294-4e5e-a7a9-b45701052461\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1081\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.8\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1081\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445973.jpg\" width=\"1081\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Leather jacket Burberry<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers grew up in Halesowen, just outside of Birmingham, the middle of three brothers in a household where his dad, a fireman, established early and often that how you carry yourself is the first thing people see. The laces tied properly before every session, the boots clean. \u201c[It\u2019s not negotiable] to have respect for the game,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cIf you give yourself respect, you\u2019ll get more out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Skinner once said that a lifetime of being told your accent sounds stupid doesn\u2019t encourage you to stay faithful to it. He said it in 2002, the same year that Rogers was born, then spent the next decade making era-defining anthems from the same streets the footballer grew up near. \u201cPeople hate on Birmingham so much,\u201d Rogers says, smiling, in his own thick Brummie accent. \u201cI like that.\u201d The negativity, the dismissiveness: he takes it all and channels it into something clinical on the pitch. \u201cThe fact that I\u2019m from there, I can try and be positive about it. It\u2019s just about how you deal with it. [You can] use it to your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the pitch, Rogers was moved up two age groups at six years old because he was operating at a level his peers couldn\u2019t match. \u201cI remember feeling like I was going against these giant people with insane strength,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYou have to find different ways to be successful.\u201d When Rogers signed for Manchester City in 2019, fresh from West Brom\u2019s academy, the assumption was that he\u2019d rise rapidly as one of the country\u2019s best prospects. What came next was something else. Loan move after loan move followed, to Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool. Each one was supposed to be a platform, but each move was more complicated than the next. Bournemouth was the hardest, though, with Rogers far from home, further away from the team sheet, and nowhere near the player he believed himself to be. \u201cI\u2019d never experienced that before,\u201d he says. \u201cHaving to deal with not playing is one thing, but I wasn\u2019t anywhere near it. [I wasn\u2019t] getting the chance to show what I could do.\u201d He was frustrated with decisions not going his way. But he shifted his mindset: \u201cIf I let it affect my headspace, then I\u2019m bringing it on myself. And then there\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What held him together was his family, his mother answering the phone every night during those long months on the south coast. \u201cI just remember being on the phone every day, expressing how I felt; my family were giving me advice and telling me how to deal with it.\u201d He looks briefly like the teenager he was then. \u201cThey\u2019ve always been massive for me.\u201d Meanwhile, Rogers\u2019 closest friends in football, Jacob Ramsey and Cole Palmer, get a Snapchat almost every day. When I ask him if he\u2019s told either of them about today\u2019s shoot, he looks almost puzzled. \u201cNah,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d rather just do things before I speak about them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201c[Playing for England] is everything you ever wanted. But you don\u2019t want it to overwhelm you. You\u2019ve got a job to do\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers\u2019 career truly began to take off under Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough, where he bagged seven goals and eight assists as well as becoming the Carabao Cup\u2019s top scorer in the 2023\/24 season. He was then offered the chance to fulfil a huge homecoming move. Securing an \u00a38m transfer to Aston Villa, Rogers returned to the West Midlands, back within a few miles of where he grew up.<\/p>\n<p>What he has done since defies straightforward statistical logic. This season, Rogers is repeatedly scoring goals that break the algorithms of most data models. For the true football nerds out there, the cumulative probability of him scoring the specific goals he has, from the specific positions he took them, is one in 1.6 million. Rogers laughs in slight disbelief when I mention it. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen that, nah,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice when they go in, because I do practise it, I do work on it. But I also want to get the rubbish goals. The easier ones are more likely to get me further than those. I can\u2019t keep relying on the good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those long shots have a specific influence behind them. His GOAT is Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he watched obsessively on YouTube growing up, turning his back garden in Halesowen into a makeshift training ground for techniques with the senior squad before he\u2019d had time to process it. The interim England manager, Lee Carsley, pulled him aside. A few days later, he was walking out in Athens as a fully fledged England international. \u201cIt\u2019s everything you ever wanted,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you don\u2019t want it to overwhelm you. There\u2019s a game on. You\u2019ve got a job to do.\u201d He scored his first England goal against Wales at Wembley last October. The World Cup is this summer, and he\u2019ll do anything to be a part of it<\/p>\n<p>Rogers\u2019 most direct competition for an England starting place is someone he grew up alongside: Stourbridge and Real Madrid\u2019s Jude Bellingham. Laughing off the notion of taking his spot, Rogers is adamant that the competition between them is healthy. \u201cThe media put us in the same category, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re the same type of player at all. We have different styles, different things we\u2019re good at. I think we bring different things to the team.\u201d His next response makes clear that competition and friendship are not mutually exclusive. \u201cIt\u2019d actually be nice to play together. I want to play with the best players regularly, and he\u2019s one of the best. Why wouldn\u2019t I want that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"bba69c39-03e8-45a0-97d7-b45701052013\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1560\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.41\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morgan Rogers, The Summer 2026 Issue\" class=\"img\" height=\"1108\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1560\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445968.jpg\" width=\"1560\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Leather jacket, cotton shirt, wool trousers and leather shoes Burberry, silver <span class=\"nowrap\">bracelet Bunney<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photography Kingsley Ifill, Styling <span class=\"nowrap\">David Bradshaw<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Every goal Rogers scores is capped off with the same celebration. Arms crossed, shoulders rubbed, face completely still: the cold celebration has become one of the defining images of the last few Premier League seasons. Cole Palmer borrowed it; it has since been adopted by athletes across different sports worldwide. But the celebration crystallises that had no business being attempted by a teenager from the West Midlands. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to be able to do it exactly like him, but I would get in the back garden and try,\u201d says Rogers. \u201cI was no different to everyone else. I was trying to be my idol.\u201d Growing up in Halesowen had its other pleasures too, of course. He laughs when reminiscing about his favourite Brum takeaway. Would he even be from the West Midlands if he didn\u2019t say he missed kebabs? Today, sadly, they\u2019re off limits. His diet is different now. The margins for greatness are too fine.<\/p>\n<p>Rogers says he reached what he describes as his ideal flow state against Manchester City last season, during a game that carried a particular charge given his time at the club. A missed penalty against Bologna in this season\u2019s Europa League quarter-final, the kind of moment that deflates lesser players, was answered within minutes: Rogers collecting the ball, cutting on to his weaker foot and beating the keeper at his near post. At his best, he\u2019s irrepressible.<\/p>\n<p>Revealing what he\u2019s excited for next, it\u2019s clear that the summer is already on his mind. (Rogers is likely valued by Villa at around \u00a3100m and has been linked with moves to Manchester United and Chelsea.) But for now, his priorities are simple: finish the season as strongly as possible, with Villa still in the hunt for European silverware and a place in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s World Cup squad at stake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cNot everything\u2019s going to happen perfectly; it\u2019s about learning and improving every year. This is just the start of bigger things to come\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Rogers\u2019 England debut arrived almost by accident. Initially, he was called up for the under-21s, but found himself training something deeper \u2013 a cutting, nonchalant response to years of doubt, often delivered directly to the Holte End of Villa Park. When I ask about the loan moves, the managers who doubted him, the clubs that moved him on, he is precise about what drove him through it. \u201cIt\u2019s not ever in a spiteful way,\u201d he says. \u201cI just wanted to show what I had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rogers moves through today\u2019s Burberry looks naturally, and describes his own style as \u201cunique to me \u2013 some people like it, some people don\u2019t\u201d. By 7pm, the shoot is wrapping. Rogers\u2019 publicist, Caroline, is already waiting with a ball and a Sharpie. Before he signs the ball for Dazed, the pair knock it between them; the keepy-up sesh looking particularly brazen inside a beautifully minimal living room.<\/p>\n<p>As the light begins to dwindle out over the Barbican\u2019s concrete frames, Rogers points out that his career is only just getting started. This is just his second full season of Premier League football. \u201cI sometimes have to remember I\u2019m still learning on the job,\u201d he says. \u201cNot everything\u2019s going to happen perfectly; it\u2019s about learning and improving every year. This is just the start of bigger things to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the days that follow, Rogers proves he is a man of his word. After 12 games without a goal, he finds himself back on the scoresheet: two goals and an assist, delivered in the quietly devastating fashion that has become his trademark. The doubters silenced, once again, in the only language he has ever needed. Some like it hot. Morgan Rogers has always preferred it cold.<\/p>\n<p><em>Grooming Marina Belton-Rose using Shiseido and Boucl\u00e8me, photographic assistant Braxton Gorringe, styling assistants Isabella Grace, Jon Bannister<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/70340\/1\/morgan-rogers-england-world-cup-2026-interview-aston-villa-football-arsenal&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/0-306-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/6\/1446241.png&#8221;] DateInMeta\u00a0 2,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ The Summer 2026 Issue Morgan Rogers: The England player\u2019s scenic route to stardom \u2018Playing for England is everything I\u2019ve ever wanted\u2019: For the Brummie-born football prodigy, it\u2019s ice-cold focus and ambition \u2013 not just talent \u2013 that has brought his World Cup dream within reach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1967937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1967937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1967937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1967937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1967937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}