I loved my kickboxing. It was about making other kids cry!
SAYS CALLUM WILSON
AS A teenager at nonLeague Kettering and Tamworth, Callum Wilson would glance round the dressing room. Down in the lower rungs of English football, his desire intensified.
‘I was there as an 18-year-old boy, training against men in their early thirties,’ says the Bournemouth striker, recalling his loan spells from Coventry City.
‘Some guys turned up in their overalls after work. You sit back and think, “I don’t want to be like that when I’m their age”. It made me go back to my club and work harder.
‘When I think of those bobbly pitches with 500 people turning up . . . the referees give you a hard time, tackles fly in. When you get knocked down, you get up quicker. You don’t dive. I learned to fight.’
Wilson has been a fighter all his life. Mingling with schoolchildren as part of a Kick It Out equality session, he emerges as the perfect ambassador.
He refuses to bow to setbacks or disappointments. As a child his father was not around, so Wilson strove to provide for his mother, Tara, and his five siblings.
Aged 16, he broke his foot three times in a year and questioned whether it could curtail his embryonic career.
Since being promoted with Bournemouth to the Premier League, he has twice suffered cruciate knee-ligament injuries — one on either leg — but has bounced back each time and scored in victories against Arsenal and Chelsea in 2018.
Wilson, 26, says: ‘You have setbacks and think, “What if this doesn’t work out?” I put all my eggs in one basket with football. I was the eldest sibling, so I felt like the man of the house and needed to earn money. I could see Mum struggling. She didn’t work at the time and was living off benefits. I wanted to help.’
Wilson is grateful to others who looked out for him, particularly his Sunday League manager Steve West, who ensured he could get to training as a child. His discipline as a teenager was also nurtured by a dabble in martial arts.
‘My second cousin was a kickboxer,’ Wilson grins. ‘I started going at 13. He taught me how to punch and said I had a good kick. I had three fights, won them all but then they started to clash with football. I still have my little kickboxing trophies. ‘All my wins were technical knockouts. It was just about making other kids cry at that age — but nobody ever made me cry. I was tough! There were no haymakers, just some spinning kicks!’ He admits there were some darker moments with his knee injuries. ‘I tended not to watch football — apart from Bournemouth games,’ he says. ‘I spent more time with the family. Sometimes I didn’t go into the changing room before or after. I knew it would make me want to be involved and rush my rehab. ‘I did a lot of one-onone with the physio to increase my confidence in my body. He roughed me up. Then I went into Under 21 games. Some kids wanted to impress against me and put bad tackles in. So I felt ready.’
Wilson has been an essential part of a Bournemouth team who have pulled six points clear of the relegation zone. He excelled in the 3-0 win at Chelsea. Manager Eddie Howe has repeatedly championed his England potential and describes him as ‘the whole package’.
Wilson’s smile broadens: ‘Throughout my childhood I was watching
Match of the Day, people like Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba. I wanted to be the man scoring goals on that show. To get to the Premier League is one thing, staying there and scoring goals is another.
‘You have self- doubt in the first Premier League seasons. I came up from League One very quickly. Then I got to the top flight and there were question marks. I had to prove myself. Now I have added goals against top teams and feel I belong.
‘I want to stay here and eventually represent my country. Having come from the bottom of the leagues, it would be extremely special, similar to Jamie Vardy.’
That challenge continues tomorrow at home to Spurs, where he will face the league’s third best defence. ‘I have never come up against a centre half and thought I am not going to score. I am confident.’
Callum Wilson was speaking as an ambassador for Kick It Out