More bucks than Becks! Jack Grealish has the same shirt number, same hair obsession, same gorgeous girl and same soaring talent as David Beckham. As he becomes Britain’s first £100m footballer at 25, could he earn more than him, asks RICHARD KAY
For a man so concerned about his appearance – his slicked-back hairstyle has a YouTube following all of its own – Jack Grealish was unusually relaxed.
His socks rolled down in defiant trademark manner to reveal his muscular calves – another part of his anatomy that garners a social media following – bear eloquent testimony to the fact that he is wearing the label of Britain’s first £100 million footballer with supreme confidence.
But then Grealish has been living with a sense of expectation on his young shoulders ever since he burst into the England team just 11 months ago.
During this summer’s barnstorming run to the Euro 2020 Final, he embodied the pluck of Gareth Southgate’s squad – if not the hero of the side then certainly its swashbuckling saviour.
The cheers from fans whenever Grealish had the ball were the soundtrack to the tournament and were reminiscent of another great crowd-pleaser who had that same audacious dash on the pitch, Paul Gascoigne.
But despite a handful of off-field incidents that pock-marked his early career, Grealish is unlikely to follow the calamitous and self-destructive path of the brilliant but flawed Gazza.
Jack Grealish wears the label of Britain’s first £100 million footballer with supreme confidence
During this summer’s barnstorming run to the Euro 2020 Final, he embodied the pluck of Gareth Southgate’s squad – if not the hero of the side then certainly its swashbuckling saviour
He has grounded by his family – and an upbringing that was dominated by the loss of a sibling.
As one of his close childhood mentors told us yesterday, football always came first with Jack, not the wealth that cascaded in its wake.
All the same, his move this week from Aston Villa, the club he supported as a boy, to Manchester City, the Premier League’s money-no-object reigning champions, has seen parallels with other footballing greats.
Inevitably, the most compelling comparison has been that of David Beckham -the same good looks (though Grealish’s owe more to a bad-boy swagger), a penchant for hair accessories and a glamorous girlfriend.
And it is surely no coincidence that he wears the same No.7 shirt worn by Beckham. At just 25, England’s most expensive footballer could yet come to dwarf the celebrity lifestyle of Beckham (who along with wife Victoria is worth a staggering £380 million).
Grealish’s £12 million a year salary works out at a huge £230,000 a week.
But even though he’s now changed hands for English football’s highest ever transfer fee, that vast salary does not make him the country’s best-paid player – he remains seventh in the footballing wage Top 10, sandwiched between the Manchester United pair of Anthony Martial and Edinson Cavani.
In previous years the label of being England’s most expensive player has been a burden. Trevor Francis – the game’s first £1 million player in 1979 – said the fee defined his career.
He recalled, years later, the endless begging letters and the criticism when his wife once appeared in a fur coat.
In a country where schadenfreude is almost as big an obsession as football, it is not difficult to imagine Grealish being the target of far more envious attacks amplified by the internet.
He has already experienced a taste of what will be in store – or rather his childhood sweetheart Sasha Attwood, a model and influencer, has.
This week Sasha, who has known Grealish since she was 14, revealed she received more than 200 death threats while her boyfriend was playing during the Euros.
With an Instagram following of more than 3.4 million, Grealish is well aware of the dark side of fame.
Inevitably, the most compelling comparison has been that of David Beckham – the same good looks, a penchant for hair accessories and a glamorous girlfriend
So what are the forces that have forged this remarkable young man and how will they help him adapt to becoming England’s £100 million player? A clue comes from the man who coached him almost two decades ago.
It was simple, recalled Richard Sweeney, who met Jack when he joined Highgate United Under-6s in his home town of Solihull in the West Midlands.
He was always ‘completely focused’ on winning.
Asked if he foresaw Jack’s rise, Mr Sweeney, 52, said: ‘Yes. The first time I ever saw him play you could tell he understood the game brilliantly. He always played a year above his age, and he was always as good as the older boys.’
But while other young hopefuls dreamt of flashy cars, Grealish kept his eyes firmly on the ball, according to Mr Sweeney.
‘Jack never talked about cars like some other young players I’ve met. He was focused on winning trophies.
‘The money has always been what comes with being a great player. It doesn’t drive him.’
Brought up in a Catholic family — he could have chosen to play for Ireland and indeed represented that country at youth level — Grealish credits his parents — father Kevin, a former plasterer who is his agent, and housewife mother Karen — in shaping him not just as a sportsman but also in life.
He has already experienced a taste of what will be in store – or rather his childhood sweetheart Sasha Attwood, (pictured left) a model and influencer, has
Born in September 1995, he is the eldest of the couple’s three children. A fourth child died from sudden infant death syndrome when Jack was five.
‘I was coaching Jack when his baby sibling died. I don’t know how it affected him but he definitely knows he is in a lucky position,’ Mr Sweeney told us yesterday.
‘Jack was a born winner from a very early age,’ said Mr Sweeney. ‘He is a team player but always wanted to be the very best player he could be.
‘He has always been ambitious. That’s why he wanted to play with the older boys. Otherwise, it was just too easy.’
And it seems Grealish’s is the story of a boy with talent whose family got it right. Aged six he signed for the academy at Aston Villa, the team his family had supported through thick and thin.
Every birthday Kevin Grealish would give Jack and his younger brother a replica Aston Villa kit.
The Villa heritage was rich. Jack’s great-great-grandfather Billy Garraty won the FA Cup with Villa in 1905 and a picture of the team and Garraty’s handlebar moustache hangs on the wall of the family home.
But football was not the family’s only sporting interest. Because of their Irish roots, he was encouraged to take up the rough and tumble of Gaelic football.
‘The way his family brought him up was to never shy away from anything and that’s clearly in his makeup,’ said James Walsh, secretary at the Warwickshire Gaelic sports club where young Jack was a brave and committed player.
But at 13 he gave it up when Villa asked him to commit to its academy.
Today, though, friends say you can still see the influence of the Irish game in the way Grealish plays — his ability to change direction and his fearless tackling — two of the qualities that excited England fans this summer.
It is surely no coincidence that he wears the same No.7 shirt worn by Beckham. At just 25, England’s most expensive footballer could yet come to dwarf the celebrity lifestyle of Beckham
By this time he was at St Peter’s Roman Catholic secondary school and it was there he met Sasha.
The romance has had its ups and downs.
Earlier this year, Grealish reportedly tried to hit on Love Island star Natalia Zoppa in a direct Instagram message, though his friends insisted he was only ‘liking’ her picture and remained ‘devoted and loyal’ to Sasha.
It is perhaps this relationship with glamorous Sasha which bears the closest resemblance to Beckham, who married pop singer Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Adams when he was 24.
But here there is a difference. While Posh and Becks became ubiquitous, Grealish prefers to keep Sasha in the background.
‘She keeps him grounded,’ The Sun reported last month.
Even so, the hateful trolling she suffered on social media this summer was a brutal reminder of the price of fame.
But her patience has been tested.
In 2015, a 19-year-old Grealish was seen with a £1,000 methuselah of Ciroc vodka while on a holiday with his girlfriend in Spain.
Days later, he was photographed in a Tenerife street looking drunk, according to holidaymakers.
Earlier that year, a newspaper had run photos of him apparently inhaling nitrous oxide, better known as hippy crack, through a balloon.
A visit to a nightclub a few months later, following a match defeat, saw him being demoted to the youth team with an instruction to grow up.
And, in March last year, he logged on to his social media account and posted a 58-second video explaining that he was ‘deeply embarrassed’ and wanted to apologise.
The reason? Only 24 hours after issuing a public appeal to his followers to ‘stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ during the first Covid lockdown, he had visited a friend.
It is perhaps this relationship with glamorous Sasha which bears the closest resemblance to Beckham, who married pop singer Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Adams when he was 24 (above)
His white Range Rover was involved in multiple collisions and photos afterwards showed Grealish exchanging details while wearing non-matching footwear — a slipper and a sandal.
The episode cost him a £150,000 fine from his club.
It may also explain why, for all his undoubted talent, Grealish has been one of those players England manager Southgate has tried to avoid. But this summer his performances and skills both as showman and entertainer demanded his inclusion.
So how should we judge the £100 million man? Spoiled by success or showing the flaws in his character that are undoubtedly a part of his appeal?
For in an era when player images are constantly polished by highly-paid PR consultants, there is something endearingly refreshing in Grealish, who admits his faults rather than having them airbrushed away.
To friends he is generous, affable and down to earth – and is as unlikely to wear a sarong or paint his nails a la Becks as he is to miss training.
Former coach Mr Sweeney, who is close to Grealish’s parents, insists Jack has ‘remained humble’ despite his success.
For starters he expects the player to keep his £1.75 million six-bedroom house set in 1.7 acres in a leafy street on the edge of Birmingham — a very imposing example of residential and middle class propriety.
‘He has enough money not to sell that house, to keep it as an investment and still buy a place in Manchester.’
Of his headbands and flair for fashion, Mr Sweeney adds: ‘He has always liked to look his best, but it hasn’t got in the way of his game.’
The most exciting English footballer of his generation now stands at a crossroads: Will the tag of being Britain’s costliest home-grown player prove a burden too heavy?
Or will he mature and fulfil the talent he undoubtedly possesses? The world of football be watching and wondering.
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