Man City and England right-back Kyle Walker has launched a football & education academy in his home city of Sheffield.
Walker, 33, said that he wanted to ‘give back’ to the city where he grew up and began his professional football career with Sheffield United. There was even rumour last year that he may return to Bramall Lane.
The England defender grew up in the Sharrow suburb of Sheffield.
He said of his new academy “I wanted to give back, especially to this city and to children that think their dream is over,”
“I have made it very clear what this place means to me – it’s a place where I started it, what gave me the opportunity and put me on the map.”
The KW2 Academy is a joint project between Walker, and The Sheffield College, and seeks to bring in 16-19 year old footballers who are not signed to a professional club.
Walker said the reason for this is to give players a “second chance” at the beautiful game.
“You might be a late developer, your attitude might not be right, your face might just not fit,” he said.
The Sheffield College’s curriculum manager for sport, Ed Kinsey, said “They need to understand the chances of becoming a professional footballer are very slim, but work hard here and who knows.”
Those who are fortunate enough to make it into the KW2 Academy will train 3 times a week, with facilities being based at the college’s Hillsborough Campus.
Walker has said that he will attend to the campus himself as often as is possible to bring as much motivation to the participants as possible.
Applications for the academy opened up on Monday the 11th of March for the KW2 Academy, with applications going through The Sheffield College.
