Welcome to Leeds – Kalvin Phillips Land.
A little over ten years ago, a junior football tournament took place in Blackpool when a young player called Kalvin Phillips got angry.
His Leeds junior side had been beaten 6-0 by another team filled with players from the Blackburn Rovers academy.
Kalvin Phillips in action as a junior for Wortley FC in Leeds
It wasn’t a tournament for academy players, it was for local clubs like Wortley FC West Leeds – Phillips’ team.
Phillips was so exasperated with the ringers that he improved his game and led his teammates through a winning streak to win the tournament.
“He wouldn’t put up with it if he thought he had been wronged,” his former coach Ian Thackray told Sky News.
“He won us that trophy in Blackpool – it was awesome.”
He remembers a dedicated young boy who played with a smile on his face and says he still has to pinch himself when he watches Phillips lead the England midfielder.
“It’s not difficult here, but it’s difficult,” Thackray said, “and it helped him.
Kalvin Phillips (far right, back row) with teammates at Wortley FC
“He is a very good boy and we are incredibly proud.”
Fellow coach Paul Hatfield explained: “It really is his field.
“Her schools are right there, primary in one direction secondary in the other, her mother’s house is right downstairs – it’s all in a tight circle – it’s kind of Kalvin Phillips land, I guess.
“The smile you see now on his face in an English shirt – that smile was there when he joined us at the age of seven or eight and in all age groups.
“Whether we won, lost or drawn, he always smiled when he came off the pitch – but he also had that tenacity.”
Kalvin Phillips’ mural in Leeds, where he appears alongside Lucas Radebe and Albert Johanneson
Phillips, 25, has spoken on several occasions about …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-07-03 01:07:00