Living abroad changed everything for Tammy Abraham. “It turned me from a boy to a man, definitely,” he says, laughing at the memory of having to fend for himself. “For one, I didn’t have my mum cooking me every meal.” But the experience went beyond that. “You build strength within yourself, because it’s a different life, language, culture, style of play. It’s one thing I’ll look at, especially after I finish football.”

Abraham’s just got home from training. He’s in a black T-shirt, trackies and a durag. On his wrist is a gold Rolex Daytona, which he bought after becoming a bit too obsessed with watches online. “A few weeks back there was one watch I wanted, and it just changed my algorithm. My whole feed became watches.” He’d promised himself a break from buying them, but couldn’t help himself. “My bad habits are watches and cars. So I treated myself,” he says, holding up his wrist.

After five years playing in Italy and Turkey, the 29-year-old is back in England, having rejoined Aston Villa in January. It’s a fitting return: he helped the club win promotion to the Premier League in 2019, before establishing himself at Chelsea and heading abroad. “I always said my dream was to come back home,” he says. “It was nice that it came from Aston Villa, a team that I had history with.”

At Roma, the team bus was escorted by motorbikes, with roads closed and thousands of fans lining the streets, waving flags, lighting flares and banging on the windows. “Everyone knows the exact time the bus is coming, because the streets are full,” says Abraham. “Especially in the derby games or big matches. Unbelievable.”

Not everything went so smoothly. A serious knee injury at Roma kept him out for almost a year. “It made me realise that football could be gone, just like that,” he says. “There’s more to life than football.”

His son, born shortly before the injury, helped put things in perspective. Now three, he makes an appearance during our interview, followed by his younger sister, who’s just turned one. “Give me five minutes, OK? Go outside,” Abraham tells them, before returning to our conversation. A few minutes later, there’s another interruption. “Give me a second!” he says, as the boy climbs all over him.

With two young kids, he’s glad to be back on familiar territory. “Football has no home,” Abraham says. “You could be here today, and you could be somewhere tomorrow.” But after years of moving around, he’s enjoying feeling settled.

His homecoming hasn’t been entirely straightforward, though. “My low point of the year was in January,” he says. “I was dealing with my shoulder injury. Every day I was struggling with pain, until I had the operation. I was playing in so much pain.” Before surgery, he managed a trip to Miami with friends. “I wanted to let my hair down and enjoy myself. And Miami is a great place.”

There’s been a lot to celebrate. Villa’s Europa League triumph made Abraham only the second player, after Emerson Palmieri, to win all four of UEFA’s men’s club trophies: the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League and Super Cup. “Winning the Europa League was the missing piece in the puzzle,” he says. “The first time at Aston Villa, we got promoted. This time, we won the Europa League. You can’t write a better story.”

He’s also a different player from the 18-year-old who made his Chelsea debut at Anfield. More patient and comfortable with competition, and less likely to dwell on missed chances. “When you’re young, if you’re not playing, it’s like, Why am I not playing?” he says. “But as you get older, you realise football is bigger than you. It’s a team game.”

There’s more to chase, for club and country. “I’ve had a taste of lifting silverware,” says Abraham. “And once you have that taste, you never want it to go.”

Tammy Abraham’s Best of 2026

Song of the year
“E85” by Don Toliver.

TV show of the year
Silo, on Apple TV.

Favourite restaurant
Novikov in Mayfair.

Big fit
Hugo Ekitike of Liverpool FC dresses really well.

Trend you want to die
Stickers. You can be having a full-blown conversation with someone and they just send you a sticker. Say something, anything!