Theo James Walcott (born 16 March 1989) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. He represented England at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2012 and has 47 caps, scoring eight goals.
Walcott is a product of the Southampton Academy and started his career with Southampton before joining Arsenal for £5 million in 2006. His speedy pace and ball crossing led his manager Arsène Wenger to deploy him on the wing for most of his career. Walcott has been played as a striker since the 2012–13 season when he was Arsenal's top scorer, and he has scored more than 100 goals for the club.
On 30 May 2006, Walcott became England's youngest-ever senior football player, aged 17 years and 75 days. In December, he received the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award. On 6 September 2008, he made his first competitive start in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra, and in the following match against Croatia on 10 September he opened his senior international goals tally and became the youngest player in history to score a hat-trick for England.
His family made a cameo appearance in the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates, the uncle of Walcott. Walcott himself was due to appear as well, but his commitments to Arsenal forced him to drop out. His cousin Jacob Walcott was a trainee at Reading and a member of the England national under-17 football team appearing in the 2009 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. His older sister, Hollie, is a bodybuilder who came second in the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation Central Championships in July 2010.
Walcott has been in a long-term relationship with Melanie Slade, after meeting in 2004 at the WestQuay shopping centre in Southampton. The couple married at the Castello di Vincigliata in Tuscany, Italy, in June 2013. Their first son Finley James Walcott was born on 10 April 2014, with their second son, Arlo, being born on 26 November 2016.
Walcott has been involved with the UK charities Build a School and Best Beginnings. He also has a pie named in his honour at the Arsenal pie shop in Holloway, which won a gold award at the British Pie Awards of 2015.
On 6 April 2008, Walcott was a torchbearer for the Olympic Flame for Beijing 2008 as it was paraded around London. He was the penultimate torchbearer just before Dame Kelly Holmes.
English FA Community Shield 2017 Arsenal | English FA Cup 2016-2017 Arsenal | English FA Community Shield 2015 Arsenal | English FA Cup 2014-2015 Arsenal |
English FA Cup 2013-2014 Arsenal |
English Premier League Hat-Trick 2010-08-21 |
2000-2000 |
2000-2005 |
2005-2006 |
2006-2018 |
2006-2016 |
2018-2021 |
2020-2021 (Loan) |
2021-2023 |
2018-2021 |
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