. Weltnachrichten – AU – Kyle Walker-Peters: « I wanted a black hole to swallow me up. « 

Two years after a bleak moment with Spurs at Camp Nou, the full-back is now showing his full value for Southampton

Kyle Walker-Peters is on the Camp Nou lawn. Ousmane Dembélé just robbed him on the center line and ran away to score. Barcelona are 1-0. Tottenham leaves the Champions League. And right at that moment – 9. On 11. December 2018 at 7 p.m. – a 21-year-old right-back has hit rock bottom.

Two years later, Walker-Peters relived the experience. « I wanted a black hole to just swallow me up, » he says. “I was lying on the floor. And I remember Danny Rose picking me up. Harry Kane said to me, « Don’t worry, you play well, we are fine, carry on. « It was a big, big moment for me. ”

And so Walker-Peters got up from the floor. He kept pointing for the ball. Tottenham would tie the game 1-1, be eliminated from their group, beat Manchester City and miraculously beat Ajax to advance to the first Champions League final. But none of this would have happened without Walker-Peters and his heroic block who prevented Philippe Coutinho from winning 2-0 in the second half.

« I learned more about myself in that one game than in my entire career, » he says. « If I make a mistake for a goal now, it will not affect me. « . It won’t make me go into my shell. It will read, « OK, you made a mistake. « . How are you going to correct that? « 

Not that he’s doing a lot at the moment. A win against Sheffield United on Sunday afternoon would be the sixth of their last eight Premier League games in Southampton. Since moving to the south coast, Walker-Peters has made a significant contribution to its upswing. Tottenham gave him a start in the game: a football education, lifelong friends, unforgettable experiences. But in Southampton, where he has a regular place in the first team and freedom of the right flank under coach Ralph Hasenhüttl, he has grown up.

It is a confirmation of the decision Walker-Peters made this summer to leave his youth club. After a successful loan period that began in late January, he had options: make the Southampton deal permanent or return to Spurs and fight for his place in a club where his involvement was largely limited to « a few cameos here and there. ». As he puts it. “I might play a game and then not five. It was really hard. ”

Not that there are any hard feelings. « I’m still in touch with all of my friends there, » he says. « I talk to Dele [Alli] every day. And they are all happy for me. It was hard to leave Tottenham. I’ve trained and played with some of the best players in the world. I have to play in the Champions League. But I was at a phase in my career when I had to show everyone what I can do. ”

Southampton made him feel good. Off the pitch, he moved into a house in Winchester and hired an interior designer to establish his preferred aesthetic (« modern, but quite minimalist – I went for white, gray, creams »). . You can feel the feeling that a club is moving in the same direction under a courageous and personable manager. « He’s really relaxed, really funny, » says Walker-Peters when asked how Hasenhüttl is behind closed doors. « But when it comes to working hours, he’s focused.

« Most teams make minor changes depending on the opponent. But our intensity and our pressure always stay the same: aggressive, double up, win 1 on 1 battles. ”

How does the press work? “We leave it to the strikers. The strikers make the decision when to press. And because they got so good at it, they know they can go 100% because the rest of the team is behind them.

« We don’t really focus on what happens when you get hit. So what? If I’m beaten, my center-back is behind me and slipping over. It’s this togetherness, everyone ready to fight for each other, which is why I believe we are doing so well. ”

With the ball, Walker-Peters has the license to run against players and use his speed to get behind the defense. He was until he was 16. Age winger and remains a wild student of the game. « I watch football a lot, » he says. “All I can, really. You can never stop learning. When I started playing right-back, I saw Dani Alves and Philipp Lahm a lot. I want to be able to play more than one position. I feel like I could play left-back. ”

Just as good, really. English football is experiencing an unprecedented flood of quality right-backs and even if Walker-Peters is a long way from extending his nine caps for under 21s, he knows the standards required to overtake Trent Alexander-Arnold. Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker, Reece James and Ainsley Maitland-Niles catapult themselves into the Euro 2021 competition. « It inspires me, » he says. “I like competition. I don’t think about it too much, but there is no reason why I am not selected if I continue to do well. ”

At the moment it’s all noise. The season is still young and with 32 Premier League games, Walker-Peters still has a lot to prove. But maybe he has already proven something: for those who saw in this small, weak full-back a player who would never hold a place at the elite level. Who was destined to be remembered as the guy in the All or Nothing documentary whose name José Mourinho struggled with?. (« Walker or Peters, what do you like? Both? It’s too long man. ”)

Walker-Peters did not see the TV show. He tries not to read too much of what he sees on social media. « You have to understand that people will have opinions, » he says. « Whether it’s positive and you think you’re the best thing since sliced ​​bread. And then on the other hand if it’s negative. You have to be strong enough to say, okay, okay. I will show you that you are wrong. ”

From being reborn at Camp Nou to being revived on the south coast, it’s a truth that he seems to live by.

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Kyle Walker-Peters, Tottenham Hotspur F. . C.. . , Southampton F. . C.. . , Ralph Hasenhüttl