- Theo Walcott was taken to the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a 17-year-old
- Before his call-up, he had never played in the Premier League before
- Liverpool correspondent LEWIS STEELE tells all in bombshell chat with Mo Salah – LISTEN NOW It all starts! New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Theo Walcott has admitted it was wrong for England to pick him for the 2006 World Cup when he was just 17 years old.
Sven-Goran Eriksson made the shock call to include the then teenager in his squad, despite Walcott having never played in the Premier League before.
And almost twenty years later, Walcott believes this was not a wise move, as intense media scrutiny left him wondering why he had been included.
‘If you say it out loud, it’s not right. That’s really not the case,” Walcott told Sky Sports on Monday evening after West Ham’s 2-0 win over Newcastle. ‘You think about players and we still call them young, 22, 23.
‘I have said this clearly for years that I should never have gone. There were other players who had experience and had played at the highest level and I was new to the game.
He added: “All the circus that came with it, I didn’t want to be part of that. For me it was all about playing and enjoying my football. It was a very difficult moment when I was consoling people like John Terry, who won a lot and played a lot of caps for England. And I’m a seventeen-year-old boy who doesn’t think I should even be here.’
Theo Walcott admitted on Monday Night Football that he should not have gone to the 2006 World Cup
Walcott was picked by Sven-Goran Eriksson despite never having played in the Premier League
Walcott said it was a big ‘disappointment’ for him not to play a single minute in Germany
Walcott did not play a single minute at the tournament in Germany as England crashed out in the quarter-finals after losing on penalties to Portugal.
The former Arsenal winger revealed he could have featured in the last eight games, but Wayne Rooney’s sending off scuppered those plans as Walcott admitted not playing was a major ‘disappointment’ after Eriksson took a gamble had taken a chance on him. .
“The disappointment part didn’t really play out,” Walcott said.
‘I might have gone further if Waz hadn’t been sent off, but that was the passion he played with. In the end it didn’t work for me, but what I did learn from it is that I enjoyed football.’
Walcott joined Arsenal straight after the World Cup and spent 12 years at the Emirates, winning three FA Cups during this period.
He also earned 47 caps for England but never played in a World Cup, and Jamie Carragher admitted Walcott’s development was stunted by being in the spotlight at a young age.
“I don’t think it gave you any advantage as a player,” Carragher claimed. ‘People think ‘we have the next Michael Owen or Pele who won the World Cup at 17’ and you think ‘he must be out of this world, world class, one of the best players England has ever seen’.
“I think this puts unnecessary pressure on your career.”