Has Theo Walcott, the 15-year-old prodigy, 'made it' in his career? Emphatically, yes

While Walcott’s room-mate – a certain Gareth Bale – had only been offered a professional contract after long deliberation among the Southampton coaches, there was never even the slightest doubt about his potential.

Scouting might have been less sophisticated than today but every major club in Europe also already knew enough to want him.

Meeting Walcott a few months later for his first interview further underlined why there was such certainty about his likely development. He was incredibly polite, grounded and intelligent – and yet refreshingly candid in chatting quite openly his family and also how he had just started dating a local Southampton girl called Mel who he had met in a shop.

Many experienced footballers insist upon having a club PR or agent present when they do an interview but, at the age then of 16, Walcott was sufficiently self-assured to chat away on his own.

His dad, Don, who would ferry him everywhere before he was old enough to hold even a provisional driver’s licence, simply waited outside the room until we were finished.

He then talked about Theo’s upbringing and explained how, it was not until he was around 10, that he first kicked a football. Within a few months, Walcott had become the most expensive 16-year-old in football history and England’s youngest ever senior international.

Tears were shed by some Southampton staff when he left for Arsenal exactly 12 years ago and, with him joining Everton this week, it was natural to think back. In evaluating his career, two things stood out. The first was that, while perceptions might have oscillated wildly, Walcott has actually remained remarkably consistent.

He is now married to Mel and they have two children. His dad is still his biggest fan and his pace continues to terrify opponents.

The second was an answer to the question of whether the 15-year-old prodigy made it? Emphatically, the answer is yes. If winning two FA Cups – including a goal in a final, as well as scoring 108 times in almost 400 games for one of English football’s biggest clubs is not ‘making it’ then we are setting a ludicrously high bar.

Yes, Walcott is not Bale but only a select handful in the entire history of British football are. And, as brilliantly documented in Michael Calvin’s ‘No Hunger in Paradise’ book and film, the brutal reality is that even the very best 15 or 16-year-old’s rarely become Premier League players, let along forge a career like Walcott.

He scored 19 goals for Arsenal only last season and, at the start of this campaign, had provided more assists over the previous two Premier League seasons than any other Englishman. When fully fit, he has always delivered with a regularity that would be the envy of just about any other wide English forward.

Having dealt with the ‘failure’ nonsense, it is of course right also to ask whether Walcott has maximised his talent. The suspicion that Arsenal’s training environment can become too comfortable for certain players is valid and Walcott could have moved on sooner, although his own football background is also interesting.

It is rare to meet a professional player whose childhood far before the age of 10 was not utterly dominated by kicking a ball around. Not necessarily in the structured environment of an academy but just in the street, park or even front lounge.

It would be impossible to measure but, having come to football relatively late, perhaps there was an intangible ‘street’ ingredient that could never be retrospectively added.

This may have been compounded by moving so early to Arsenal rather than gathering more experience at a lower level. Even so, for a player who began his career subjected to such extraordinary expectation, there is a certain irony in how Walcott has become almost undervalued.

He duly started his Everton career with another assist on Saturday and don’t be surprised if he puts together a plausible case over the final months of the season for inclusion in Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad.