It is said 'home is where the heart is' and that is certainly the case when it comes to Levi Colwill.

Family and football are everything to the talented centre-back and last summer he decided to move back to Southampton with his parents and younger brother. A decision which has been vindicated as he has excelled in the heart of our defence, with only Moises Caicedo and Cole Palmer playing more Premier League minutes this season.

Colwill grew up not far from Southampton's St Marys Stadium and took his first footballing steps with his dad at the park, before moving into grassroots football and the cages of the city.

‘Thinking back to those early days of football, many of my memories are of playing with my cousins and my friends in the local cages, like most footballers nowadays I guess,' Colwill said.

‘Playing with the older boys all the time in the cages helps build that mentality and it was one of the best things ever. As kid, playing football is all you know and I loved every minute of it.’

He joined grassroots team City Central around the age of five and his talent meant he was able to play a year up in his cousin's team.

By the age of eight or nine, the likes of Southampton and Chelsea were showing an interest in the then fledgling left winger and he was invited to trials.

The former Springhill and Beevers Town pupil wasn't the only talent to have impressed at City Central. Not long after Colwill left to join a different grassroots team, Jamal Musiala - now of Bayern Munich and Germany - joined the club. After initially meeting each other during a training session at Southampton, their dads got talking and they were soon travelling up the M3 together for what proved to be successful trials with Chelsea at Cobham. It is a journey the pair - who coincidentally share the same birthday - would do together for several years.

Colwill signed for Chelsea at Under-9 level and was soon travelling up to Cobham four times a week. In the end, the family decided to relocate to London but within a year, they were back in Southampton.

'We moved back to Southampton because my family missed everyone back home and I didn't mind how long the journey to training was because I just wanted to play for Chelsea,' he said.

So Kings Oak school in Kingston was swapped for Ludlow in Southampton but Colwill and his family's commitment to Chelsea didn't falter and in the end, he moved away from home to be closer to training around the age of 14.

A winger in his early years, Colwill blossomed into a talented left-back in Chelsea's youth teams, alongside the likes of Tino Livramento, Xavier Simons and Lewis Bate, before our academy coaches decided his future was at centre-half aged 15.

Levi isn't the only talented footballer in his family, though. By the age of 11, he had already run out as a mascot alongside three of his uncles at Wembley Stadium when they appeared in - and won - the 2014 FA Vase final.

Barry and Bryan Mason and Marvin McLean were in the Sholing starting XI when they took on West Auckland Town and it was to be McLean who scored the game's deciding goal midway through the second half.

'In the tunnel, it was all really serious and all the players were shouting,' Levi recalls. 'I was nervous but walking out at Wembley at such a young age was an incredible feeling.

'I actually remember thinking to myself that I had to play at Wembley one day so to have now done it several times really is a dream come true.'

Levi's first appearance at Wembley actually came during his successful loan spell at Huddersfield Town in 2022, although the day ended in disappointment as an own-goal from Colwill was all that separated the two sides as Nottingham Forest secured promotion back to the Premier League.

It was a rare blip for Colwill though as his outstanding performances for Brighton & Hove Albion during his second loan spell, England Under-21s on their way to European glory and then for Chelsea at the start of the 2023/24 season saw Levi make his senior Three Lions debut against Australia in October 2023.

'When I was called up by England, I rang my dad and he was quite emotional actually. It was a dream come true for both of us,' he said.

‘I hadn’t really thought about making my England debut when it happened, so for it to come around so quickly was amazing...It was definitely one of my proudest moments.

‘Obviously, as that little boy, I wanted to play at Wembley but it felt so far away.'

Fast forward to the summer of 2024 and he decided it was time for a change. Less 'out with the old and in with the new', more 'out with the old and in with the old', as Levi decided to move back home to Southampton to be closer to his family.

'When I'm at home with my family, all my problems go away and I am just Levi,' he said.

‘Living back at home has made a huge difference to me both on and off the pitch. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of travelling involved now but it’s all worth it and I can't complain one bit about living at home. It’s been the best decision I’ve made.

‘I get treated so well there by my mum, dad and my little brother and of course being around my dog, Stormz! He’s amazing, I’ve created that bond with him again and it’s just the best feeling to come back to him after training and being around my family.

'It means a lot and I think being settled at home again has shown in my performances on the pitch.’

And so we are back to where we started: home is where the heart is. Football and family.

‘Football is everything to me but that is because I know how much it has helped my family,' Levi added. 'So I know I owe everything to football in that sense. If it wasn’t for football, lord knows what I would be doing or where my family would be so that is why I am so happy I have had this opportunity and I know how lucky I am.’