England and Manchester City star Kyle Walker has revealed how the tough love of his father played a crucial role in shaping him into one of the world’s best right-backs. Kyle Walker, the 34-year-old opened up about how his dad, Michael, was relentless in critiquing his performances as a young player, pushing him to constantly improve.
Walker, who has won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups, and a Champions League with City, shared how his father’s harsh feedback was initially difficult to handle. “I used to hate going to football with him,” Walker said speaking on his podcast You’ll Never Beat. “No matter if I played good or bad, I’d get in the car and be reduced to tears. He’d say I wouldn’t have done this right, I wouldn’t have done that right.”
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Despite the intensity of his father’s criticism, Walker recognizes now that it came from a place of care and desire for him to succeed. “He didn’t do it because he wanted to hurt me. He did it because he cared,” Walker said. The England international also credited his mother, Tracey, for providing the “caring support” that balanced his father’s approach.
Walker recalled that his father’s approval was hard to come by, even as he began to achieve success at the highest levels of football. “Sometimes it was very, very tough to get in that car,” he said. “My mum would be going, ‘Michael, leave him alone, he’s done well.’ I could have scored three goals, but he would have said, ‘No, you should have scored six.’”
It wasn’t until Walker had established himself at Manchester City that his father began to acknowledge his progress. “Only when I’ve got older in my career, he actually says, ‘All right, well-played son’. After a couple of years at City, I think he was then like, ‘You know, he actually can play football,’” Walker joked.
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While Walker chooses a different approach when it comes to his own children, he still applies some lessons from his father. “I don’t do the same with my kids in terms of critiquing them, but I still feel that some of the things in life—where he’s taught me to be a winner—I’m trying to embed that into the boys,” he explained.
Walker revealed that he doesn’t let his children win easily when they compete against him, believing that experiencing losses early on will help them develop resilience. “If I keep letting them win, when they lose, it’s going to be traumatic for them,” he said. “We’ll play a little game in the garden or something, and I’ll give it my all because I feel that it’s going to instill that into them.”
Through a combination of his father’s tough love and his mother’s nurturing support, Walker has developed into one of the game’s top defenders—a player who thrives under pressure and is driven by an unwavering desire to win
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