When Nathan Tella’s loan spell with Burnley ended in May 2023, he could never have predicted what would happen next. Having scored 17 times to help Vincent Kompany’s side seal the Championship title with more than 100 points, the forward was expecting to return to his parent club, Southampton, who had just been relegated, or rejoin Burnley in the Premier League.
“Well, definitely not abroad, that was the main thing,” says Tella when asked where he saw himself ending up last summer. “But Bayer Leverkusen came in, near the end of the window. I remember saying to my dad when it came about: ‘Do you think I should do this?’ Then he was like: ‘I think this is probably the next perfect big step for you in your career.’ I have a very good relationship with my dad. I mean, he’s almost like a second agent for me.”
Harry Tella’s hunch has certainly proved to be correct. Twelve months on, his son is the proud owner of an NBA-inspired ring with his shirt number, 19, engraved on it after the Dutch defender Jeremie Frimpong presented each of his Leverkusen teammates with one to mark winning the Bundesliga. Tella scored five times in a remarkable season in which Xabi Alonso’s side become the first to complete a German top-flight league campaign unbeaten.
They claimed the double by winning the German Cup, a few days after suffering their first loss in 51 games against Atalanta in the Europa League final. “To experience something like that in a final was hard for all of us,” Tella says. “But I think as a team, we all felt individually that it was the perfect way to make amends for losing a final is to win another final. So we all had that internal motivation that we weren’t going to be upset twice in a week.”
Tella’s Bundesliga winner’s medal is back home in Stevenage, the 25-year-old having departed for Leverkusen’s pre-season training camp in the picturesque Black Forest town of Donaueschingen – where Spain were based during Euro 2024. “I didn’t want to bring it back to Germany – I feel like I’d be showing off,” he says. “But I have a picture of it on my phone that I look at every day. I have a picture of me with both winners’ medals around my neck and another with my whole family and the Bundesliga trophy.”
As part of Leverkusen’s preparation for a campaign in which they will try their luck in the Champions League, they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening. Tella spent 10 years in the club’s academy before being released, going on to join Southampton, and was part of the same youth side as Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson. He is full of praise for the support he was given by the coaches there after the bad news that his time was up had been delivered.
“They said it was a hard decision but they thought that it [would be] the best thing because even if I’d stayed, they couldn’t offer the game time someone else would, so I could end up being frustrated a lot of the time,” Tella says. “They were always open and honest with me and when I went on trials, they were always quick to message me and say: ‘How’s it going? What do you need?’ or ‘Is there anything we can send over for you?’ I never felt like once they said I’d been released, I was kicked out the door.
“When I was younger, I struggled with confidence but that’s come as I’ve got older. Some of the coaches still remember me as that shy kid at Arsenal who came in and didn’t really talk much to anyone to now being a Bundesliga and Pokal champion.”
Tella has no doubt that learning from Alonso – who was coveted by many of Europe’s top sides but opted to remain at Leverkusen – has changed the way he now thinks about the game. “He was always assuring me that he wouldn’t have brought me to the club if I couldn’t add to the team,” he says. “Even just watching other games, I’m imagining myself playing against the opposition and I’m looking at how we would set up. We would try to find their strengths and try to nullify them.
“Even during the Euros I had my football head on trying to think how we would play against certain teams. I think he’s definitely helped a lot with my game intelligence. Given how well we did last year, it’s understandable that he was the talk of the town. He’s an amazing young manager and the sky’s the limit for him.”
A first senior cap for his parents’ homeland of Nigeria in November was another reward for Tella’s patience and bravery in seeking a new challenge overseas, although he admits the transition to life in Germany was not easy. “At the start, I was almost like a kid: everyone was doing everything for me, telling me where I had to go and speaking on my behalf because I can’t speak the language. My German is getting better; day-to-day I can say more things and understand more. I’m getting used to when the bank holidays are and when the shops are open.
“The brilliant thing about this club is that we have such a diverse team. We have players who speak Spanish, players who speak German and players who speak English, but we all communicate with each other effectively. We’ve got such an international changing room but we’ve all got a strong relationship with each other.”
