PATRICK BAMFORD is not the stereotypical footballer. He can play the saxophone, piano and violin, speaks four languages and has studied economics. What also comes as music to Aitor Karanka’s ears at Middlesbrough is that the forward also scores goals.

Bamford only turned 21 this month, but is already an educated young man very comfortable with the spotlight and holds big ambitions. During his private education at Nottingham High School, he was a bright boy, so much so that he sat his GCSEs and A-levels a year early and was even offered a scholarship at Harvard University.

But despite his obvious intelligence and willingness to learn, football was always his preferred love and when the opportunity arose to turn professional he put everything else on hold. Since then he has made Jose Mourinho sit up and take notice and now he wants more than that.

This was the season when Bamford expected to play a bigger role at Chelsea but, even though he has found himself agreeing to a loan switch to Middlesbrough until January, he has no concerns over what direction his career is taking. He is keen to succeed on the Premier League stage and is determined to get there.

“The original plan was to stay at Chelsea and be a third striker,” said Bamford. “But the chance came to bring Didier (Drogba) back and he is obviously a legend at the club. Jose said I could stay if I really wanted but he said for my development, and to make sure I am ready for Chelsea, the best option for me was to go out and play again. And I agreed with that.

“But I am happy to be patient and wait for my time. I know what the plan is for me. When I first signed for Chelsea they didn’t really think, with the odd exception, that most players would be either emotionally or mature enough to play in the first team until they were 22 or 23. So if I keep biding my time until then and keep improving, hopefully I will get my chance.”

Mourinho’s decision to allow Bamford to head for Middlesbrough was partly to do with the fact Karanka was in charge. “The boss here will be able to keep in touch with the boss at Chelsea to let him know how I’m doing, I think that helped,” said the striker.

Returning to Chelsea and impressing is what is highest in Bamford’s thinking, having agreed to a £1.5m switch to Stamford Bridge in January 2012. Planning for the future has always been on his mind, just in case his dream of playing professionally never materialised after joining Nottingham Forest’s academy aged eight.

Despite the commitment he had for developing his talent as a schoolboy, there was a still a focus on his education and he ended up with five A*s, three As and two Bs at GCSE a year ahead of his time.

As well as being able to speak Spanish, he also did well at German and French. Combined with the ability he had with his feet and further success at A-levels, that led to the unconditional offer from Harvard.

“I have always been a year ahead at school. I was born on September 5, the cut-off date is August 31 but ever since nursery I’ve just stayed a year ahead,” said Bamford, the son of an architect and beautician from a village near Newark.

“That meant I did my GCSEs early so when it came to going in to the two-year scholar programme at Forest, I’d already done a year of A-Levels. Just in case things didn’t work out I’d already looked at universities and didn’t fancy doing the English route.

“I applied abroad and somehow Harvard offered me a scholarship. They offered it mainly based on football but it was also to do with business. But because I quite like languages I would have tried to include that as well.

“But 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. Dad always made sure I had a back-up and that’s why I did my A-Levels. It was then just a decision as to whether I went down the education or football route.”

Having decided to stay in England rather than head for Massachusetts, Middlesbrough are reaping the rewards and will do so until January 1 initially. He scored his first goal for Boro in last Saturday’s 4-0 win over Brentford, then was the cool scorer of the penalty which took the Capital One Cup tie at Liverpool to spot-kicks on Tuesday.

“Playing at Anfield, with that sort of crowd, is definitely something I can get used to,” said Bamford. “It is nice playing in front of a full stadium. It was probably the craziest match I’ve ever been involved in. But it’s been great since I arrived, I’ve settled in really easily. Training is very similar to Chelsea – very high tempo, high intensity. And lads are really nice which has made it easy.

“We have a strong team but it is difficult to decide who is going to be there at the end. But if we can get the consistency right, that will help - a bit like Burnley and Leicester last season. It makes it easier if you can get on a run, but we have got a good team here.

“There is a good feeling here at the minute and I could tell when we had the international break and all the players joined us after the transfer window, you could see it was a good set up and the ball was popping around in training.”