Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has revealed that he rarely watched football before joining Manchester City in 2017.
The full-back was signed by Pep Guardiola seven summers ago, after eight years in north London with Tottenham, which was dotted with loan spells at Sheffield United, Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa.
Walker, now 34, has won almost everything there is to win at Manchester City, playing a key role in City’s reign supreme in six of the last seven Premier League campaigns.
Guardiola’s tutelage seems to have rubbed off on Walker, who watches his clips, sees where he can improve and watches the sport regularly.
However, things weren’t always this way for Walker. Speaking on his new BBC podcast, You’ll never beat Kyle Walker, said: “I’ve probably watched more football in the last two years than before.” Before I wouldn’t have watched football.
Kyle Walker won his sixth Premier League title with Manchester City this season, his first as captain.
Walker, 34, burst onto the scene at Tottenham but did not have the same vision of the sport as he does now.
Everything changed for the full-back when he arrived at City in the summer of 2017.
‘Before coming to (Manchester) City, I just played football to play football. I didn’t think “I could be better at this or I could do better at that, or maybe my defense was great there.” I didn’t go back to watching clips or anything like that.
After being loaned out several times early in his career with Spurs, Walker made a name for himself at Tottenham in 2012 when he was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award, beating his future teammate Sergio Agüero. in the prize.
As the years passed, Walker only got better and certainly came of age when he swapped the capital for Manchester in the summer of 2017.
While at Tottenham as a youth, Walker did not have the same perspective on life or his career that he has now.
‘A million percent (now I learn more). At that time he only played soccer. Being a young Londoner between 20 and 21 at the time, you don’t think about playing the best football and winning the Young Player of the Year award.
‘There were nightclubs open every day of the week. I would just go and enjoy my life.
Walker isn’t the only footballer who has shared that watching football wasn’t for them when they were younger; his former English compatriot, Ben White, had similar feelings.
In an interview with Sky Sports in 2021, the Arsenal defender revealed that he was not a fan of the game as a child; However, unlike Walker, his attitude has not changed.
“No, I never watched football when I was younger, and I still don’t now,” he told Sky Sports three years ago.
“I loved the game, I always played it, I never watched it.” So I don’t know much about the older generations.
Walker won the PFA Young Player of the Year award while at Spurs in 2012 and “just went and enjoyed” his life during this period.
Arsenal defender Ben White is another professional player who has admitted that he does not watch football outside of playing.
The interview took place before a match with London’s Crystal Palace, who at the time was managed by former Arsenal legend Patrick Viera.
When asked about Viera, White doubled down, continuing: “I know (Vieira) was a very good player, but I wouldn’t know the details.”
‘I’m pretty busy, I’m always doing something. I observe myself for analytical reasons. I look at England, maybe. “I just wouldn’t sit down and watch a game.”