Published 08 July 2021 2 min read
England Men's Senior Team
Walker back in the Den
Kyle Walker is back in the Lions' Den after helping England reach their first major final in 55 years
Kyle Walker speaks about the difficulties of spending so long away from his family and the vast improvements England have made since the last Euros.
Lifting the trophy on Sunday would go down as one of the Manchester City man’s greatest triumphs but would also come at the cost of not seeing his loved ones for five long weeks.
That is just one of the many sacrifices professional footballers make during their careers but Walker says he’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
“Every one of us here will have gone through down days because it’s five weeks away from your family,” he said during Thursday’s episode of Lions’ Den connected by EE.
“It can be hard and I’ve definitely had a couple of down days but you get on your phone and ring them, make sure they're alright.
“And then as soon as you hear that you’re ‘making them proud’ it makes you keep pushing.
“Because you’re not just doing it for yourself and the other players here. You’re doing it for the people at home, the people you used to go to the playground with, or the youth clubs. I think we owe it to everyone who has been on the journey with us.”
Lifting the trophy on Sunday would go down as one of the Manchester City man’s greatest triumphs but would also come at the cost of not seeing his loved ones for five long weeks.
That is just one of the many sacrifices professional footballers make during their careers but Walker says he’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
“Every one of us here will have gone through down days because it’s five weeks away from your family,” he said during Thursday’s episode of Lions’ Den connected by EE.
“It can be hard and I’ve definitely had a couple of down days but you get on your phone and ring them, make sure they're alright.
“And then as soon as you hear that you’re ‘making them proud’ it makes you keep pushing.
“Because you’re not just doing it for yourself and the other players here. You’re doing it for the people at home, the people you used to go to the playground with, or the youth clubs. I think we owe it to everyone who has been on the journey with us.”
08 Jul 2021
Walker back in the Den
Kyle Walker speaks openly about the difficulties of tournament football
A trophy with England would certainly make fair remittance for supporters and a nice addition to Walker’s already vast medal collection.
And he’s using the experience of being knocked out of the competition back in 2016 to fuel the fire to win it this time around.
“If I think about the last Euros, when we got knocked out by Iceland, that still haunts me and I’d say that’s the lowest moment of my career by far.
“But we’re a lot more mature now. A lot of us have played in more big games, we’ve won more and we can manage games better.
“I didn’t expect us to get to a semi-final, or for us to beat anybody in a penalty shootout because it was unheard of. But I think it taught us that we had to believe in ourselves and the players around us.
“These are nights that define your career and they’re the nights that people remember you for - they go down in history. We’ve got one more of them and last night was fantastic but I want to do better than that.”
And he’s using the experience of being knocked out of the competition back in 2016 to fuel the fire to win it this time around.
“If I think about the last Euros, when we got knocked out by Iceland, that still haunts me and I’d say that’s the lowest moment of my career by far.
“But we’re a lot more mature now. A lot of us have played in more big games, we’ve won more and we can manage games better.
“I didn’t expect us to get to a semi-final, or for us to beat anybody in a penalty shootout because it was unheard of. But I think it taught us that we had to believe in ourselves and the players around us.
“These are nights that define your career and they’re the nights that people remember you for - they go down in history. We’ve got one more of them and last night was fantastic but I want to do better than that.”
MATCH REPORT: ENGLAND 2-1 DENMARK