From kickboxing promise to Premier League star

It is said that there are games that are won by small details. The one that declined the balance in favor of Newcastle last Sunday against Everton (2-1) did not happen during the game at St. James Park, but 15 years ago. If Callum Wilson had decided to continue his promising career as a kickboxer instead of abandoning it to focus on football, Ancelotti's team would probably remain in that cloud in which he lived as the absolute leader of the Premier. But Callum, with his two goals, woke the toffee from their sleep. “When I was 14 I had three fights and I won all three by technical KO, it was easy, you just had to make the rivals cry,” says the forward, who continues to cause some tears to his opponents by his kicks, although now he gives them To the ball.

The decision to leave kickboxing and focus on soccer was based on financial rather than passion. When Callum Wilson was just a baby, his father abandoned his mother and she cared for him and his other four siblings alone. As the striker grew up into adolescence, he didn't think about which sport he was best at, but which sport would make the most money. “You had to help at home. I went to training sessions and gyms and saw many guys in their forties who killed themselves at work and dedicated their free time to wrestling and I didn't want to be one of those, that's why I made an effort to be a professional player and so on. to help my mother in the best way, “said the English international, for which Newcastle paid Bournemouth 22 million euros this year.

It took him a while to get to the top. He was trained in the lower categories of Coventry, League One and did not reach the Premier until he was 22 years old. Bournemouth took notice of their 21 goals in the English Third Division in the 2013-14 season and bet on a boy who missed the trains to do something big. Already at Bournemouth he exploded: 67 goals and 30 assists in 187 games. His performances opened the door to the national team and the interest of the big clubs. Mourinho wanted him this summer to accompany Kane at Tottenham, but the lack of solvency of the spurs prevented the London team from matching Newcastle's offer, where he has six goals and one assist in eight games. Kickboxing may have lost a promise, but soccer won a reality.