There can’t be many players, if any, who have been selected for a World Cup squad before they have made their Premier League debut. If it comes to that, there can’t be many who have been transferred for something like £5 million pounds after making just 21 appearances in the Football league Championship.
And when you remember that the transfer from Southampton to Arsenal came when Theo Walcott was only 16 years old and he was a mere17 at the time of the World Cup call up, you’ll have some idea of the impact this player had.
Certainly anybody who had seen some of the fantastic goals that Theo Walcott had scored for Southampton wouldn’t have been in the least surprised. From the minute he made his debut at Elland Road against Leeds of all places he looked completely at home; scoring in his first three league games, in fact. It was his pace that caught the eye first. Then his ability to control the ball whilst running at speed. Even his positional awareness seemed far beyond his years. Not forgetting that priceless ability to be able to put the ball into the back of the net.
By the time Theo had signed for Arsenal, he had shown just why Nike had decided to sponsor him when he was only 14 years old.
I suppose everybody, probably including the player himself, fully expected Walcott to have a few years in Arsenal’s abundantly talented reserve squad, with a few League Cup games helping him make the next step up. It was when Sven Goran Erikkson saw the player in training, though, that he decided to take him to the 2006 World Cup ahead of established Premier League goalscorers such as Jermaine Defoe.
Of course, none of the controversy that followed Walcott into the summer tournament had anything to do with the player himself and must have been very difficult for such a young man to cope with. Never have as many cameras seemed to focus on a player who didn’t even get on the pitch and then he had to come back to try to establish himself at Arsenal.
To his credit, Theo Walcott always behaved in a totally professional manner and, upon his return to London, after making his first team Premier League debut as substitute on the first day of the season. From then on, he went from strength to strength both literally and metaphorically. The young, fragile Walcott was physically developing and his mental strength was also clearly apparent.
Mainly operating on the right wing, Walcott gradually began making a greater impact on Arsenal matches and, by September 2008, his career had progressed enough for him to be selected for his country in a World Cup Qualifying match against Andorra. It was, though, in the stunning away victory in Croatia when the hat trick scoring forward’s class totally shone out.
Just when it looked as if he was going to fully cement his position for both club and country, however, a shoulder dislocation led to four months out of the game. Although he returned to score important goals in the Champions League against Villarreal and Chelsea in the FA Cup semi final, this season has seen further disruption. Apparently, Theo has been spending some of his time developing his skills as a children’s author; having signed a contract to write two stories about a schoolboy superhero who it just so happens is a footballer.
At the time of writing, Theo Walcott has just successfully finished his first full game of the season for Arsenal in the Champions League against Olympia and everyone at the club, as well as every England supporter, will be hoping he can quickly show the kind of form that will get him into another World Cup squad. This time, though, he ought to get on the pitch.
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Written by Steve Yates. If you want tickets for Arsenal fixtures visit our website http://www.footballticketpackages.com . As well as Arsenal you'll find Premier League tickets for all the top clubs. This article may be reproduced in full with author acknowledgement and intact links.
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