Not too many footballers can say that an offer from Harvard University was the back-up plan to a career as a pro.

Patrick Bamford can. In fact, there are a lot of things which the erudite, privately educated young striker can say which deviate from the bland soundbites of wealthy sportsmen of his generation.

He is a linguist, conversational in German and French, but with a desire to teach himself Spanish. He goes home after training and learns to play the guitar from YouTube tutorials and is already proficient with a violin, saxophone and piano.

Patrick Bamford celebrates scoring from the penalty spot for Middlesbrough against Liverpool

Bamford’s maturity defies his tender years — he turned 21 this month — and he spent all of his school days with an older age group.

It is Chelsea’s first team — and England — where he hopes to make the grade. For now, though, it is a season at Middlesbrough under the guidance of Jose Mourinho’s former Real Madrid assistant, Aitor Karanka.

On Tuesday night he came off the bench at Liverpool to score an equalising penalty in the 120th minute before missing one and converting one in the epic 14-13 shootout defeat.

But the former Nottingham Forest trainee, who joined Chelsea for £1.5million in 2012, could well have been in his final year at America’s flagship university.

‘I did my GCSEs early (five A stars, three As, two Bs) so when it came to going into the scholar programme at Forest, I’d already done a year of A-levels,’ he explains. ‘Just in case things didn’t work out I’d already looked at universities. I applied abroad and somehow Harvard offered me a scholarship!

Liverpool's Kolo Toure brings down Bamford for penalty in Capital One Cup tie on Tuesday

‘They offered it mainly based on football but it was also to do with business and I would have included a language as well.’

So how do you say no to an Ivy League university at 16?

‘My ambition was always to play football, so as soon as I knew I had the chance to make it pro and achieve my dream then Harvard was just a back-up,’ he says.

Bamford is a former pupil at the prestigious Nottingham High School, whose alumni includes writer DH Lawrence and former Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke.

The rugby-playing tradition, however, threatened to get in the way of his football development. He admits: ‘I actually quite enjoyed playing rugby, but Forest said it was getting too risky. On Saturday I trained with Forest in the morning then played rugby for the school in the afternoon. But my dream was always football.’

Bamford showed his confidence and maturity by scoring last-gasp equaliser at Anfield

He had only played twice for Forest when Chelsea made their move. There is a suspicion the Blues will sell Bamford — scorer of 29 goals during loan spells at MK Dons and Derby last season — for a handsome profit, much like they did with Romelu Lukaku.

Bamford, though, believes he has a future at Stamford Bridge.

‘The original plan was to stay at Chelsea and be a third striker,’ he reveals. ‘But the chance came to bring Didier (Drogba) back and he is obviously a legend at the club.

‘Jose said the best option for me was to go out and play again and I agreed with that.

‘You’ve just got to be patient. Romelu was obviously eager to be the main guy, so when the chance for him to go to Everton came he grabbed it.

‘But I know what the plan is for me. Chelsea think most players won’t be mature enough to play in the first team until they are 22 or 23. So if I keep biding my time until then and keep improving, hopefully I will get my chance.’