Admittedly there’s a lot to take in with that headline, but stick with us a moment…
Ever heard of the name Kevin Walker in Irish footballing circles? Nope, doesn’t ring a bell with us either but he’s pretty big news in Sweden at the moment as far as football and music are concerned.
Kevin Walker is a 24-year midfielder for Swedish second tier side GIF Sundsvall and he is eligible to play for Ireland because of his Irish father Patrick Walker, a Carlow native who represented Bohemians, Gillingham and the Ireland under-21 side before moving to Sweden, where he remained after finishing up his career with the same side his son currently plays for.
Not only is Kevin a decent footballer, but he’s a half-decent singer as well and is currently wowing audiences on a TV show called Idol, a Swedish equivalent of X Factor and the seemingly endless copycat shows doing the rounds these days.
According to BBC, Kevin’s success on the show is playing havoc with the fixture list, however, as the TV Company that own the rights to Idol, TV4, also own the rights to Swedish second division games and have insisted on re-scheduling Sundsvall’s fixtures so as not to clash with Walker’s appearances on the show.
“It’s ridiculous, TV can do whatever they want,” Niklas Kllingberg, a midfielder for Swedish side Degerfors told newspaper Sportbladet.
“When our goalkeeper came back from the Under-21s, it’s been difficult to move matches. He’s had to play the next day. Now a game is moved because Kevin is singing.”
Walker, who has represented Sweden at underage level but remains eligible for Ireland if Noel King fancies going all Joe Lapira on us, said of his current existence: “I’m living a Bruce Wayne life at the moment.
“I play football during the week, and then take part in Idol at the weekend. It’s different for me than the other participants.”
We can only imagine Kevin, but we’ll let you play the Simon Cowell role here for a moment and try and predict whether Kevin has what it takes to make it in music, or whether he’ll be back mixing it with the mediocre in Sweden on a full-time basis before too long.
