When Eileen Hetherington first met Kyle Walker, he was a scrawny 11-year-old starting at High Storrs school in south-west Sheffield where she taught PE. “He oozed personality,” she says. “He was personable, cheeky, a good laugh.”
He is now 5ft 10, weighs 13 stone, and is a right-back playing in England’s World Cup squad. “He didn’t really fill out until after he left, so seeing him now as a big strapping footballer and, by the sounds of it, one of the best defenders in the world is amazing,” Hetherington says.
Walker is one of six players in the England squad to hail from Yorkshire. Jamie Vardy and Harry Maguire are also Sheffield-born. Danny Rose is from Doncaster and John Stones from Barnsley. Fabian Delph was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Gary Cahill was born just south of Sheffield in Dronfield, over the border in Derbyshire.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Maguire speculated about why so many of his team-mates were from the county. “There are quite a lot of Yorkshire lads in the squad and they all tend to be defenders or defensive midfielders,” he said. “It must be something from the culture for the area. I’m sure there are other parts of the country who are more than capable of getting in a physical battle, but I’m sure we’re all up for it, definitely.”
Dan Jarvis, mayor of the Sheffield city region, says there are few places in the country as football-mad as South Yorkshire. “That can be seen every Saturday afternoon whether you’re at Bramall Lane, Oakwell, or standing on the touchline of a local playing field,” he says.
He points to the region’s sporting facilities, many of which are a legacy of Sheffield hosting the World Student Games in 1991.
“There is also that resilience, that spirit, and that true Yorkshire grit, which gives our kids the drive to maximise their talent and fulfil their sporting dreams,” says Jarvis.
Hetherington, who was Walker’s head of year when he was at High Storrs, says she suspects the preponderance of local lads in the England squad has more to do with innate talent and good support networks than Yorkshire grit. Walker’s sporting talent was clear from a very early age, she says: “He was always fast. It was very noticeable that he was a beautiful sprinter.”
Despite his skill, school wasn’t always easy for him, says Hetherington. “He was a mixed-race lad who was mega talented. There was a lot of jealousy around and boys can be horrible sometimes,” she says. “It’s hard when you’re doing the very thing that a lot of lads want to do.
“I used to say to say to him: ‘When you come back you’re going to buy me a car. I don’t want anything flash, just a nice little Mini will do.’ It was a motivational thing. It was about telling him: ‘You are going to get there.’”
If the levels of excitement surrounding the World Cup are high in the rest of the country then they are through the roof at High Storrs school, says PE teacher Nick Mallaband. “Students are proud to have that link between their school, where they go five days a week, and an England superstar,” he says.
A signed England shirt from Walker adorns the wall near the school’s gym and Mallaband says it often sparks conversation among pupils. “On the shirt he’s written: ‘Keep working hard’ and you can see the effect that message has had across the school,” he says. “There’s a motivation for people to do their best and to apply themselves in their subjects at school and in everyday situations.”
Across town, in Stocksbridge, Allen Bethel, the former chairman of the Stocksbridge Park Steels football club, is sitting in a meeting room at the club’s ground, with a view over to the Jamie Vardy stand. Vardy spent seven seasons with the club before moving to Halifax Town and beginning his rags-to-riches ascent to the Premier League.
“Most under-18s can’t be bothered, but Vardy was the opposite,” he says. “He would bring the kit out and then take it back afterwards – 18s never do that.” While it wasn’t always obvious that Vardy would end up playing for England, it was clear from the beginning that he was a good player, says Bethel.
“He was fearless; he could score; he could run faster than anybody else; he could get kicked and it didn’t matter, and he could head a ball. So all those things coming together saw us moving up the league.”
Despite the high number of Yorkshiremen in the World Cup team, 77-year-old Bethel says he has seen the popularity of football in the region decline over the years. “I played when there were chimneys all along there,” he says gesturing to the brow of the hill.
“Places like Barnsley and Donny, they had more talent coming out of them when there was a coal industry there. All of the steel towns and the coal towns produced players. Boys at 16, 17 and 18 can’t be bothered these days.” Could the success of so many local players inspire a change? Possibly, he says. “My grandson now reminds his grandma that Vardy is playing tonight.”
Glyn Booth, the treasurer at Wheatley Wanderers, a junior club in Doncaster a 40-minute drive away, says the effect of having local success stories is clear. “In Yorkshire at the moment, even though the teams aren’t doing that well, there are quite a lot of players from the area that are doing well.”
Left-back Danny Rose was born in Doncaster and started his career at Leeds United. “Some of the lads have met Danny and when you know somebody it makes you feel more a part of it,” says Booth.
“Kids around here are desperate to get into clubs and play. The only down side to that is they all think they can be the next Jamie Vardy or Danny Rose and, unfortunately, that is a one in 5,000 chance. It’s about trying to get kids to play football and enjoy football rather than thinking they’re going to become a millionaire through it.”
For the kids at High Storrs school, the success of their alumnus has certainly had an effect. Asher, 13, is a keen footballer and says Walker’s success has been an inspiration. “When you play football and you step on to the pitch, you have your motivations and your inspirations, and he’s one of them for me,” he says.
Asher, like Walker, is half Jamaican. “He’s mixed-race like me and quite a high proportion of the squad is at the moment. That’s helped me to think that race should never be a thing that should hold you back. I know that he’s come from the same place as me. He’s been where I am and he’s got to where he is now.”
