I’M IN THE SAME TEAM AS MY HEROES
TAYLOR Harwood-Bellis knows exactly where he was when Sergio Aguero’s famous title-winning goal hit the back of the QPR net.
He was going crazy with some of his team-mates from the City under-10s – and his cousin Danny – at the front of the Etihad Stadium’s family stand.
Fast forward seven years and the modest Stockport lad is training alongside Aguero in the first team squad and making his debut in the same team as another of his boyhood heroes, David Silva.
Fast-forwarding seems to be what Harwood-Bellis has been doing for the last year, to the point that he has found it a little bewildering at times – but he knows that, while he has made a breakthrough, there is a long road ahead.
In the summer of 2018, he was a rawboned 16-year-old, just looking forward to his first season at under-18 level.
Then an injury to England under-17 captain Joel Latibeaudiere saw him promoted to the under-23s and he seized that chance with a series of commanding performances as the Blues reached the FA Youth Cup final and had a good run in the Checkatrade Trophy.
That opened up a chance to join the first-team squad for the summer tour of the Far East and again the England youth defender stepped up and took his opportunity.
The death of his grandad, Dave Bellis, cast a dark cloud over a bright moment in his career and the fact that the funeral coincided with the last training session before City flew to China had the teenager worried, torn between his family and a huge chance.
“I found out I was on the list for the tour just as I started training with first team when they first came back,” said Harwood-Bellis.
“I went in to see the manager because the last training session clashed with my grandad’s funeral, so I wanted to ask permission to miss it.
“He said it was no problem and wouldn’t affect me going on tour.
“I didn’t want to miss a session and for it to affect me going on tour, but the manager was brilliant.”
The youngster impressed Guardiola on that tour and has remained in the first team frame ever since, making his debut in the 3-0 Carabao Cup win at Preston.
That debut was meant to be, HarwoodBellis believes.
His late grandad was a City nut who was cremated in his sky blue shirt and his last words to his beloved grandson had been ‘Do it for City!’
Grandad Dave was born in Preston, was a North End fan before he moved to Manchester as a boy and would have been 78 on his next birthday – and there was Taylor, coincidentally wearing the number 78 shirt and playing his first game at Deepdale.
Injuries to Aymeric Laporte and John Stones have now seen Harwood-Bellis and Garcia shifted into the first-team squad and the 17-year-old admits he found training tough at first.
“It’s massively different,” he said. “You have players who have played in World Cups, Euros and in the Premier League for however many years.
“The intensity is at a whole different level to anything I’ve done before. I’m used to it now but it was hard at first.
“It was always a dream of mine to play with players like David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany. I never got the chance with Vinny, but now I’m training and playing with the others.
“I was in the Family Stand for the Aguero goal, right at the front, with a few of the lads from City and my cousin Danny, going mental.”
Making his debut was different – Harwood-Bellis said he found it easier in some ways than playing in the youth ranks.
“The nerves were there but because I was younger – especially going into the EDS – you feel there is not as much pres
sure,” he said. “I’ve been playing against people five or six years older than me, in the EDS as well as the first team. There’s pressure, but I think about the fact I’m only 17 and just play my game.
“Playing with the best players in the world helps as well!”
Harwood-Bellis is built to play for City. At 6ft 2in, the physios reckon he could still grow another inch and he is yet to fill out physically.
But if he can keep progressing, he has the perfect blend of strength, aggression and football ability to play for the Blues in the Premier League.
“I never used to be aggressive, it’s developed in the last four or five years. I’ve become a player who others know won’t shy out of a 50-50,” he says.
“In training it’s the same – the smaller guys like David Silva and Raheem Sterling are so strong and their centre of gravity so low, that you’re not pushing them off the ball, no matter how big you are. It’s a massive difference.”
His grandad’s words are always with the youngster, who grew up supporting both City and his local team Stockport County, where his uncle Steve Bellis is a director and dad
Martin used to work.
“My granddad used to go to watch
City every weekend, home and away and even went to Maine Road on his bike,” says Harwood-Bellis.
“When he couldn’t go any more because he started getting ill, I used to go round to his house every Sunday to watch the football. All of my family were big City fans.
“People say you can’t support two clubs, but I don’t care what anyone says. I do. I support City because of my grandad. That passed down to my dad, who’s always loved City. My dad and uncle both worked at County so that has always been in the family.
“My grandad’s words are always in the back of my head. I’m doing it for myself and my family, but for my grandad as well. It gives me extra motivation - not that I need much.”
Watching games from the sidelines comes naturally to the lad from Offerton, so standing in the away and chanting “City! City!” just days after he had been playing for them at Preston, was nothing unusual for HarwoodBellis. But Taylor is not the only sporting talent in his family – his twin sister Rebecca, or Bex for short, is a Great Britain under-16 international at basketball, a sport at which Taylor also excelled until he gave it up to focus on football.
Bex plays for Ipswich in the top flight of the national women’s league and though they are miles apart, the pair still bounce off each other.
“Bex is not as confident as me, so before games I remind her she plays for Great Britain, so she knows she is good enough,” he says.”
Once Laporte is back, probably early in 2020, the likelihood is that Harwood-Bellis will be moved back into the elite development squad.
Guardiola recently said that the biggest challenge for a young player is not moving up, but reacting in the right way when they are moved down again.
Harwood-Bellis said: “What will change is that I’ll put more pressure on myself to perform, because I will want to get back in the first team and be the best player there. That’s only natural.”
My grandad’s words are always in the back of my head – it gives me extra motivation
Taylor Harwood-Bellis