Morgan Rogers

It is a fitting moment for Morgan to feature as Sports World’s latest cover star, particularly alongside PUMA, a brand that has been part of his football life since childhood. Now one of the faces of PUMA’s FUTURE line, Morgan is preparing for the next stage of his career on his own terms.

“I like to play on instinct, on flow and how I feel,” Morgan says. “Sometimes it’s not always going to work, sometimes it’s not always perfect, but I think those are the players that get fans off the seats.

“Those are the players that can unlock a door and create a moment out of nothing. That’s the player I am, that’s the player I always have been, and I want to be that player to make differences in games, to be the key reason why we win games and why we do well.”

It is that freedom to express himself that Morgan believes can make the difference in a game. For PUMA, it is also the thinking behind FUTURE, a boot built for players who want to find their own way through a match rather than follow a script.

There is a personal connection to PUMA, too. The brand was part of Morgan’s childhood, with his father insisting on PUMA Kings when he was growing up.

“He’d only buy me PUMA Kings growing up,” Morgan says. “So to be now part of the PUMA family and to be so integrated and feel loved and feel wanted is a really nice moment. It’s something I’m really proud of and a really nice thing to be a part of.”

His relationship with the brand has also given Morgan the chance to put his own personality into what he wears on the pitch.

“I think it just fits with my personality, fits with my idea perfectly,” he says. “Comfortable, looks good, crazy colours, that’s a bit of me and it’s a bit out there and a bit different and that’s why I like it.”

Morgan is quick to separate the footballer people see on the pitch from the person away from it. As a player, he describes himself as a “loud bubbly free spirit”. Away from football, things are considerably quieter. Time with family and friends is where he feels most comfortable.

Morgan remembers his parents rearranging their lives to make sure he could get to training and games. Weekends were spent travelling, often in cold and wet conditions, but he says he was never left stranded and his family always found a way.

“Every one of those sessions was key to me getting here,” he says. “That’s always something that sticks in my memory. When I play, I do it for my family. Not just them either, my brothers and my aunties helped in that period as well. It’s a really big thing that I’m so fortunate and grateful I had that support network to help me over the last few years.”

That support remains just as important now. “I speak to my family every day, pretty much,” Morgan says. “Most of them, whether it be in group chats, calls, whatever it may be, whether I’m at home, whether I’m not.”

Football can change quickly, and Morgan has experienced both sides of it. There have been setbacks and hurdles along the way, but his view is straightforward.

“Everyone goes through knocks and hurdles,” he says, “and to get where you truly want to get to, you have to go through something, whether it be big, whether it be small. It’s the ones that can stand up when that happens and kind of go again and take it to that next level, in any walk of life really, not just football.”

The list of milestones already attached to Morgan’s career is long, though he admits he has rarely had much time to stop and take them in.

“I want to keep making more memories,” he says, “keep breaking records or trying to break records or trying to do one better each year and each season.”

Growing up, Morgan watched Chelsea as one of the biggest clubs in the game, with Champions League and Premier League success and players he had grown up admiring. When the opportunity came to represent the club, he says it was one he could not turn down.

“The price tag and all that I can’t control,” he says. “I think it’s a nice thing for me, but it’s also something that I can’t get too drawn into, that people are going to judge me regardless. And I do have that pressure on me to deliver because of it. And that’s my motivation, that’s my goal, that’s my aim, regardless of whether the price tag was x or y, it doesn’t change what I’m planning to do, what I’m trying to do, what I want to achieve with the club, and probably just gives me a bit more motivation to prove people wrong, because I know that means more people would doubt it.”

Having grown up wearing PUMA, becoming part of its football family has given him the opportunity to think beyond simply wearing the latest pair of boots. He can already imagine personalised boots that feel completely his own.

“I’d like to kind of take it to that next step further,” he says, “and see what we can do together, and maybe have ideas of my own with Puma in the future, and see where that can take us, and kind of get creative with it. I think there’s no limits to what the brand can do and there’s no limits to what I want to do and kind of where I want to take it.”

That creative side was also captured by PUMA in its ‘Inevitable’ film, which traced Morgan’s story from Hillzone to the world stage. It was shown at a send-off event before the World Cup, with his family there to see it.

“Yeah, it was a lovely night, a lovely evening with the close people in my life,” he says. “Seeing someone create that for me, Puma doing that for me, was a really nice gesture, a really nice moment, and really nice to spend it with those, and kind of watch where I come from to where I get to, because sometimes you don’t quite realise how far you’ve come and how quickly it all happened. So yeah, it was a really nice night, it was a really nice moment, and to spend it with my family there’s nothing really better.”

That sense of perspective feels particularly relevant now. For all that has changed in Morgan’s career, what matters to him hasn’t: his family, and the freedom to play his own way. With Chelsea now the stage, and PUMA’s FUTURE on his feet, there is plenty more to come.