‘I shouldn’t have gone’ – England star’s World Cup admission | Football | Sport

Former Arsenal and England winger Theo Walcott has admitted he “shouldn’t have gone” to the 2006 World Cup after being handed a surprise call-up by Sven Goran Eriksson. Walcott was just 17 years old when Eriksson named him in his squad for the Germany tournament, despite the youngster having never made a single appearance for the Gunners.

Walcott had joined Arsenal from Southampton for £12million in January 2006, yet had to wait until the following season before pulling on the famous red and white shirt competitively. The attacker, born in 1989, had netted five goals in 23 appearances during his fledgling career at Saints before making the high-profile switch.

There was considerable excitement surrounding Walcott’s potential, and Eriksson opted to hand him an opportunity in the England World Cup squad in spite of his youth and limited top-flight experience.

Although Walcott eagerly seized the chance to represent his country on football’s grandest stage at the time, he now considers it “too much, too soon” and believes Eriksson should never have handed him that call-up.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Walcott said: “It was too much, too soon for me. You’ve just turned 17. You’ve just gone to Arsenal from Southampton in the Championship. You haven’t yet played in the Premier League.

“When you’re older and you’re an adult and you’ve got more responsibilities and you have your own children, I do look at it now and think, ‘Where was the protection side of it?’

“For me, no, I shouldn’t have gone. Big Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole looked after me. I saw them both recently and thanked them because they didn’t realise what they did for me at the time.”

Beyond coping with the weight of becoming England’s youngest-ever player and heading to a World Cup, Walcott had to navigate the paparazzi frenzy that followed his selection, with photographers camping overnight outside his family home in the Berkshire village of Compton.

However, his neighbours rallied round, deliberately positioning their vehicles to block in one photographer so he could not capture images of Walcott and his then girlfriend, now wife, Mel.

“They blocked his car in, but he was threatening to run them over if they didn’t get out of the way for the picture,” Walcott said. “Just to get a picture. Putting people in danger. Fully grown men following a boy and a girl. When you voice it out loud now, you think, ‘Wow. How was that OK’. It was scary, and it was daily.”

Ultimately, Walcott failed to feature even once for England at the 2006 World Cup, with Eriksson opting against giving the teenager significant game time despite an impressive opening to his career.

“It was very different then,” Walcott continued. “I had to deal with the paparazzi side. Now, they have the social media side which you can’t get away from, this thing that’s in the palm of your hands every single minute.”