It’s been a slow start to Kai Havertz's Chelsea with the German only scoring one in the Premier League which came in Saturday's 3-3 draw with Southampton but the German showed us a glimpse of what he is cappable of in the cup with a hat-trick against Barnsley.

Perhaps people will put Havertz’s slow start down to the fact their was a huge lack of pre-season but in the Carabao Cup match Havertz was allowed to play in his preferred number 10 role and he really started to show his qualities.

Beginnings

Havertz grew up in a quiet but beautiful German village called Mariadorf. On a Saturday morning, he would wake up and just have to walk 500 meters down the road and see his local pitch.

His local uneven and messy pitc wasn’t anything special, nothing more than your typical local clubs pitch but to Havertz and many other Alemannia Mariadorf players, it was home.

From a young age, Havertz made a name for himself around the village, being able to play in sides up to four years older than him and still stand out as the best player.

The Next Step

At the age of eight, Bayern Leverkusen first made contact with Havertz’s family and wanted the midfielder to start playing at a higher level of football.

Two years on, it was time for Havertz to make the jump and start testing himself at a higher level, so his family moved into the city and he joined Alemannia Aachen.

At the time Alemannia Aachen where playing in 2. Bundesliga and was the side Havertz grew up supporting but in his first and only season he went to a tournament in Cologne and after performing exceptionally, bigger clubs started to spot his talent.

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Concerns

After the tournament, Havertz moved to Bayern Leverkusen where he settled in quickly, mainly playing as a central playmaker but would also be able to play out wide.

Despite his clear talent and ability there was one big concern which was his height.

"At 14 or 15, I was still one of the smallest players in the team," Havertz told the Bundesliga’s in-house media channel last year. "Then I went through a pretty dramatic growth spurt. I had to get used to my legs being longer - it affects the whole way you play football.”

An 18-year-old too busy to play in the Champions League

Havertz led Leverkusen's under 17 side to the Bundesliga title which really started put his name on the map, so much so that in the same year he became the Bundesliga's youngest player at 17 years and 126 days when he made his debut coming on as a sub in 2-1 defeat to Werder Bremen.

At the age of 18, Havertz had already started cementing his position in the Leverkusen side but had to miss out on two huge games against Atlético Madrid and Schalke because he was still doing his school exams.

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Swapping the books for the Bundesliga

Once Havertz had no more school, he hit a bit of road bump was all this pressure on the young lad getting too much?

Havertz was in poor form not scoring or assisting for 12 games and the Leverkusen fans starting to get on his back by booing him in a game against Hertha Berlin just before the winter break.

All this did was motivate the youngster and it was clear to see however horrible it must have been he came back better from it by going on to score 15 goals and get seven assists in the next 24 matches while putting in many man of the match performances.

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