Last weekend’s goalscorer was put up to meet the media this week and it quickly became clear that it is impossible for any of his current team mates to match his pedigree. Malachi Fagan-Walcott’s chat revealed a past strewn with famous team mates and coaches leading him to park focus on Dunfermline v Queen’s Park for 20 minutes.
The famous names of Cole Palmer, Yunus Musah, Jude Bellingham, Jan Vertonghen, Ledley King and Jose Mourinho all cropped up as Malachi discussed his development and his transition to a central defender. Having started his football as a striker at Norseman FC in Edmonton Green in North London, Malachi Fagan-Walcott was persuaded to become a defender and when he joined the Spurs Football Academy he benefitted from specialist coaching from Ledley King and Jose Mourinho.
The 22 year old who is on loan to Dunfermline from Cardiff City until the end of the season thanks the likes of Jan Vertonghen and Ben Davies for helping him but he singled out Spurs legend Ledley King as a major influence on his defensive play. The central defender who made 323 competitive appearances for Tottenham and won 21 England caps took Malachi for extra sessions after training. He explained:-
“When I was in and around the first-team, just before I made my debut, him and I would do stuff together. He taught me quite a bit. They all helped a lot, even just with little things. They would come and talk to me, which was really good.
“José Mourinho would pull me into a meeting room and go through training with me and go through my under-21s games and really pick stuff out. He was the only first-team manager who did that with me when I was that young. That really helped.”
Malachi Fagan-Walcott started his footballing life as a striker before being honed into a defender at Tottenham. The Englishman has not forgotten his early striking abilities, scoring three times as he has played every minute of his 13 matches since making his Pars debut against Dundee United at Tannadice in January. His goals per appearance ratio at Dunfermline is only bettered this season by strikers Chris Kane and Craig Wighton.
“I used to be a striker back in the day, in Sunday league, but when I went to Tottenham they changed me from a striker to a defender. For some reason whenever I go up the pitch, I always feel like, ‘this used to be me’ and I always know I have it inside me. I’ve just been in the right positions.”
It was one of Malachi’s youth coaches who persuaded or in reality imposed the change.
“I remember the session like it was yesterday. We were doing attack v defence and I was on trial. We didn’t have enough defenders, so the coach said, ‘go back into defence and then we’ll swap you’. Me, being on trial, I thought I’ll show I can defend as well. I was taller than everyone else and I was just blocking everything. Then the coach pulled me to the side and asked how I felt about playing in defence. I said no but he said, ‘I feel you could be something special’.
“As a kid, watching Match of the Day and stuff, you see players scoring goals. I said, ‘no, I score goals, I don’t want to do that’ but he said, ‘no, I’m telling you’ and then I tried it out and never looked back. I like it, because you get more of the ball as the centre-half, and I like having the ball. In some games as a striker you can go through a game and touch the ball, like, four times. So, I’ve grown to love it because I like being on the ball more.”
So it became that Malachi learned to love defending, he continued:-
“Growing up, you kind of get that part. When I first transitioned to it, if I blocked it, I blocked it. I didn’t really think anything of it but as you get older it means more and it means more to your team-mates around you. It’s like a buzz.”
In the Tottenham Academy Malachi played alongside Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, now at HJK in Finland and every block he would scream and shout and come and slap him on the head:-
“You grow to love that kind of stuff, like a last-ditch tackle or a last-ditch block, or even just a big tackle, in general. It gives you a buzz. Sometimes it can feel like more than a goal. I’ve had tackles when I’ve felt so much better than when I scored last week. It all depends on the game and where the game’s at. If you’re on top in a game and they get a break and you get a block then – like against Arbroath – then it feels really good. They could have scored from it and I made a sliding block, which felt really good.”
The inclusion of Malachi’s name on an England under-15s team-sheet that was circulated this week also required some explanation. He started for an England U15 team captained by Yunus Musah and including Cole Palmer with Jude Bellingham on the bench against a Belgium team that itself included Jeremy Doku. Malachi in his soft speaking voice merely commented “that was a team! A very good team.
“All the England camps I ever went to were fun. I used to love that point of the season. We had a massive group chat and everyone used to love getting selected. The vibe was fun but the quality was unbelievable as well. I’m a 2002 and Jude is a 2003, and Jude, Jamal and Karamoko Dembélé were up with us. Under-15s is the first camp you have with England, so they got pushed up into their first camp and you could tell from there.
“Jude was tiny compared to what he is now. Jamal was unbelievable as well, and it was only a matter of time before they were going on to do what they’re doing now. Even the likes of Cole Palmer, he was amazing as well. They were always so much smaller and skinnier. I was always tall and Jude was tiny. I’ve got videos of him when we used to mess about, you look at him then and you look at him now, and you’re like, ’wow, what have you been fed!’.
“He looks like he’s been in the game for ages. He’s so mature now. It’s good to see. I still keep in contact with the majority of them and it’s good to see people doing so well. There was a list on Twitter that I got tagged into and it was about where everyone is now. It’s crazy to see where people are. Some people who were the best in that squad at that age, and are now playing in the fifth-tier. I thought, ‘football’s kind of harsh sometimes’ because they were unbelievable.
“Yunus Musah was captain and you could kind of tell he was going to have a good career. He’s gone on to play for AC Milan and the USA. I’ll talk to Yunus and Jude and people like that, and ask them what it’s like up there at the top of the game. Sometimes it’s just banter but it’s good to know, just to help myself, really. It’s always good to see boys that you’ve known or grown up with get to that sort of that level, watching them on a Wednesday night and them playing is unbelievable.”
