The concrete streets of south London’s Aylesbury Estate must have felt a long way away for Reiss Nelson, standing on a touchline in Dusseldorf and waiting to make his first appearance in German football. It was a sweaty afternoon in mid-September, barely two weeks since he had touched down in this foreign country with its unfamiliar culture, and the teenager was about to experience an eye-opening — and eye-watering — start to his season with Hoffenheim.

A few minutes after coming on as a substitute, Nelson was given a typically blunt welcome to life in the Bundesliga. “I went very deep to pick up the ball in our own half and I tried to turn,” he says. “A defender clattered me. I was confused, dizzy. Then the ball was bouncing, and I went to chase it. Another player kicked the ball straight in my face. I remember falling to the floor and I think the captain grabbed me and just threw me. I was thinking ‘what is he doing?’”

If the sight of Nelson crumpled on the turf, his body bruised and his face stinging, was enough to make Hoffenheim wonder whether this was all too soon for an 18-year-old with limited experience, those doubts did not linger for long. Thrust back into the action, Nelson composed himself, cleared his head and, soon afterwards, slid a measured finish inside Fortuna Dusseldorf’s far post. As he scored, his watching family broke down in tears.