For Manchester City fans, Kyle Walker is considered one of their star players, with a £160,000-a-week salary matching his sporting talent.
But the sportsman’s humble beginnings are a far cry from the lavish lifestyle he leads today, having witnessed devastating tragedies while growing up on the working-class Lansdowne Estate in Sheffield.
Kyle, 34, of Jamaican descent, has previously detailed witnessing terrifying incidents, including a deadly house fire that left a woman dead.
The star had already shed light on her past in a 2022 interview, where she reflected on the incidents that have marked her life.
He told The Mail that one day when he came home from school he found a woman walking around his house wearing a motorcycle helmet and carrying an axe.
Kyle Walker’s childhood is a far cry from the lavish lifestyle that comes with his role as Manchester City captain, having overcome his fair share of hardship and tragedy.
“Even now I say it with a smile on my face,” he said. “At the time, when it happened, I didn’t realize (the importance and gravity of what had happened). I wasn’t an adult. I wasn’t aware of what was actually happening. If I look back, I think, ‘That was really quite bad.'”
Kyle also witnessed a devastating fire that started at a neighbor’s home when someone poured gasoline into his mailbox and threw in a match, unwittingly stumbling upon the scene while returning home.
‘The fire was serious. Then someone was hanging on the stairs. I was going up on my landing. Technically I didn’t see him hang himself, but the police stopped it and it was next to my house.
‘The children managed to get out of the fire. The caregivers trapped them with blankets. The mother threw them out. The mother was a large woman and could not get out.’
Despite these challenges, Kyle has received support from his father Michael and mother Tracey in his decision to pursue a football career.
The couple met after Michael emigrated to the UK from Kingston, Jamaica, and together they have two other children.
Despite being close to his parents, Kyle admitted that he clashed with Michael’s strict parenting style, admitting that it made him “cry” after every football game.
Talking about Sounds of the BBC On his podcast, You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker, he explained: “I hated going to watch football with my dad. It didn’t matter if he was playing well or badly, I would get in the car and cry.”
The sportsman grew up on the working-class Lansdowne Estate in Sheffield with his parents Michael and Tracey, after his father emigrated to the UK from Jamaica with just £200 to his name.
Kyle previously shared that he witnessed a devastating fire that started at a neighbor’s home, resulting in the death of a woman.
Kyle continued: “I don’t blame him for that because he made me the person and the player that I am. I always want to prove people wrong and at the beginning of my career, it was my dad that I was trying to prove wrong. He did it because he cared.”
Kyle said that despite this, his mother Tracey provided him with “support and love” and it took him many years to gain his father’s approval with his sporting abilities in football.
“It was very, very difficult to get into that car at times, my mother would say, ‘Michael, leave him alone, he’s done well,'” she added.
“I could have scored three goals, but he would have said to me: ‘No, you should have scored six’. Only when I got older in my career did he say to me: ‘Very good, well played, son’.”
“After a couple of years at City, I think he thought: ‘You know, he can really play football.'”
Kyle finally kick-started his football career at the age of 19 by signing for Sheffield United, and in 2009 began a six-year stint at Tottenham Hotspur.
In 2017, under Pep Guardiola, he signed for Manchester City and in 2023 was named club captain, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup.
Kyle has previously shared that his own upbringing has helped shape the way he raises his four children, whom he shares with wife Annie Kilner.
He said: ‘I don’t let my children win now. If I keep letting them win, when they lose it will be traumatic for them. We play football matches in the garden and I give it my all because that will instil that in them, they will be better people and become winners.
‘My father’s parents were from Jamaica and they left him in England with £200 and a washing machine when he was 17. So he passed all that on to me from his parents.
“I try not to do the same thing as much as possible. But what he taught me about being a winner, I try to pass on to the kids.”
Kyle, who now earns £160,000 a week at City, also said he partly wishes his children could have the same upbringing as him.
Kyle, who now earns £160,000 a week at City, also said he partly wishes his children could have the same upbringing as him (pictured with wife Annie Kilner).
Kyle finally kick-started his football career at the age of 19 by signing for Sheffield United, and joined Manchester City in 2017.
“I say that now we have the privilege of having nice things but the children have to entertain themselves. They play with their siblings and that’s it,” she said.
“Sometimes I wish I could put them in a housing estate so they could mix with different people and have different friends. When I was a kid, you’d go and call your friends.”
Kyle is currently struggling to save his relationship with Annie, 32, after having not one but two children with Lauryn during their marriage.
Annie kicked him out of their £4million family mansion in Cheshire once the truth was exposed, leaving Kyle stuck renting accommodation for six months.
In July, Lauryn lost her child support battle with the footballer after a tumultuous series of months.
In An interview with The sun on SundayThe influencer described Kyle as a man who wanted to “have everything he had and eat it” and instead of being the “gold digger” she has been portrayed as, she is simply trying to do right by her children.
She said: “Sometimes I get tired of all the criticism, but I don’t regret having fought to financially protect my children from a wayward father.”
Last month, an extraordinary court ruling accused Lauryn of using Kyle as “an open checkbook” and “repeatedly threatening him to get what she wanted.”
She said that while her recent court hearing had portrayed her as someone with an “insatiable greed and relentless pursuit of money”, she maintained that she is financially solvent thanks to her work as an influencer and regular appearances on television shows.
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