Harvey Elliott played one minute for Liverpool before his deadline day transfer to Aston Villa on loan in September -- an important minute that saw him start the move for Rio Ngumoha's dramatic stoppage-time winner in a 3-2 win at Newcastle on Aug. 25 -- but it is a minute that has turned the England midfielder's 2026 World Cup dream into a nightmare.
Thanks to a little-known FIFA rule -- Article 5, paragraph 2 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players -- professional footballers are only able to play for two different teams in one season, and it is that regulation that has left Elliott facing a lost year without an escape route.
The rule states: "Players may be registered with a maximum of three clubs during one season," but adds, "During this period, the player is only eligible to play official matches for two clubs."
As a consequence, one of England's brightest young players finds himself trapped playing for a team that don't use him and he is unable to move to another.
Elliott, 22, went into this season having been named Player of the Tournament in England's successful UEFA European Under-21 Championship campaign in Slovakia, just weeks after helping Arne Slot's Liverpool to Premier League glory, where he made 18 appearances as the team secured the club's 20th domestic title.
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His loan move to Villa was supposed to guarantee him the first-team football that would establish himself as a Premier League regular and propel him into Thomas Tuchel's senior England squad ahead of the 2026 World Cup -- following the path laid by his fellow U21 teammates Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen) and Alex Scott (Bournemouth) this season.
But after being left out of Villa's matchday squad for the sixth successive Premier League game at Brighton on Wednesday night, -- his last league appearance was 45 minutes against Fulham on Sept. 28 -- Elliott has registered just 96 minutes for the club across one start and three substitute outings.
Sources have told ESPN that Liverpool do not have a break clause in Elliott's loan deal, so the youngster can't return to Anfield when the transfer window re-opens next month. And with the terms of Elliott's loan including a �35 million obligation for Villa to complete a permanent transfer at the end of the season if he makes 10 Premier League appearances, there seems to be little prospect of Villa boss Unai Emery triggering that clause by selecting a player he has, so far, used sparingly.
"Firstly, there are other players performing very well -- this is the first argument of why he [Elliott] is not playing," Emery told reporters this week. "He is training very well every day. We are not thinking about the transfer window in January. He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then we are going to decide."
When Elliott moved to Villa in the final hours of the summer window, sources said that there was an expectation he would take the place of Argentina international Emiliano Buenda, who was being lined up for a move to Leeds United.
But Buendia's move to Elland Road fell through and the 28-year-old, who was seemingly out of Emery's plans after spending last season on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, has since surprisingly returned to favor at Villa Park, making 11 Premier League appearances this season to lift the club up to third in the table.
With Morgan Rogers and Ross Barkley also ahead of him in the pecking order, Elliott's chances have been limited, although a knee injury that is expected to sideline Barkley for three months may yet offer him a chance to kickstart his Villa career -- albeit with the caveat that six more appearances would result in the club having to sign him permanently for that hefty fee.
Having been singled out for criticism by Emery for his performance in the 1-1 draw against Sunderland in September, when the former Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain coach spoke of the midfielder "passing behind the defense without options," Elliott's future at Villa appears to be bleak.
RB Leipzig had been keen to sign Elliott this summer, with former Liverpool coach and now Red Bull's Head of Global Soccer Jurgen Klopp a long-term admirer of the player, but the Bundesliga side's 20 million offer was rejected by Liverpool, prompting the club do the loan deal with Villa.
Now, with the January transfer window less than a month away, Leipzig is no longer an option and neither is a return to Liverpool due to that one minute in a red shirt at Newcastle leaving Elliott with no way out of FIFA's regulations.
So unless he can somehow force his way in at Villa, Elliott's hopes of making the World Cup are over, just six months after he had put himself in a strong position to claim his place on the England plane.
