A BATTLE OF WILLS
Sibling rivalry helped Joe to raise his game
JOE WILLOCK admits he was the weakling younger brother as three talented siblings practised to become professional footballers.
Newcastle’s £25million signing is set to face Aston Villa today to cap an amazing August for the Willocks.
Joe, 22, left boyhood club Arsenal to become a “main player” at St James’ Park after his successful loan spell last season.
Chris, 23, grabbed a goal and an assist to help QPR beat Middlesbrough in the Championship on Wednesday, with his kid brother in the stands.
And Matty, 25, earned a contract at Salford City in League Two after a trial, scoring a “30-yard thunderbolt” against Orient two weeks ago.
The brothers grew up kicking a football together at their home near Highbury after their parents fled the Caribbean island of Montserrat in the late Nineties to avoid volcanic eruptions that forced out 66 percent of the population.
Joe said: “How competitive were we? It helped me being the youngest. I always had to be the one who had to put the most effort in because I was the weakest and smallest.
“I was always playing with the older boys and with my brother’s friends. I feel like it helped me a lot.
“I was at Arsenal from the age of four-and-a-half. It was competitive even at that age. But my dad tried to take that side away from us and told us to have fun on the pitch. Looking back, that was better to do. If you are a kid that young, you can’t put pressure on too much.”
Guided by dad Charles, whom Joe describes as his “hero and biggest influence”, the Willock boys had to go their separate ways to make a living in the game.
Chris went to Benfica B, playing more than 60 times before coming back on loan at Huddersfield last season, with QPR paying £750,000 for him last October.
Joe said: “It was necessary for me and my brothers to go in our different directions. It wasn’t easy when Chris went to Portugal. As kids we shared the same bedroom. It felt like a piece of me had left the family home.”
They did all share a pitch in 2017, Arsenal’s Joe and Chris against Matty, who had seven years at Manchester United, in Premier League 2.
Now all three are making their way at different levels and as competitive as ever – with family at their heart. Joe once dedicated a goal “to mama, for all the times you worked the late shift... and the times you didn’t eat so I could eat”.
Today, he is bidding to make it eight goals in eight consecutive games, equalling Alan Shearer’s club record. Joe comes in for Jonjo Shelvey, who has a calf injury, with boss Steve Bruce saying he will use his new signing because he is “naturally fit” despite a lack of pre-season game time.
Joe said: “I feel I want to put a shirt on and give my all. There is a time for me to step up.”