Joseph George Willock (born 20 August 1999) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

Career

Arsenal

A youth product of

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, Willock joined Arsenal at age four-and-a-half, having been allowed to play alongside his older brothers. He made his first-team debut for the club on 20 September 2017 in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

against

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

. Willock made his

debut against

on 15 April 2018. He scored his first senior goal on 29 November 2018 in a 3–0

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

victory away at

Vorskla Poltava FC Vorskla Poltava ( uk, ФК «Во́рскла» Полта́ва ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Poltava that competes in the Ukrainian Premier League, the top flight of Ukrainian football. History Kolos Poltava The club ...

. He then scored his first brace in a 3–0 FA Cup victory away at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

on 5 January 2019. On 12 September 2019, it was announced that Willock had signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal. On 19 September 2019, he played as Arsenal won 3–0 against

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

by scoring a deflected effort to open the scoring in the opening matchday of the

2019–20 UEFA Europa League The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Sevilla defeated Inter Milan in the fina ...

. Willock scored his first goal at the

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. It has a current seated capacity ...

on 24 September 2019 after tapping-in Arsenal's third goal in a 5–0

win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, set-up by

Héctor Bellerín Héctor Bellerín Moruno (born 19 March 1995) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right-back or wing-back for Primeira Liga club Sporting CP and the Spain national team. Bellerín started his career at Barcelona, and moved ...

. On 25 June 2020, he scored his first Premier League goal in a 2–0 win over

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Newcastle United

On 1 February 2021, Willock joined

on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. On 6 February, Willock scored in the 16th minute on his debut in a 3–2 win over Southampton. After scoring in three consecutive substitute appearances against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, Willock was rewarded with a start against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, where he was once again on target, scoring the opening goal in a 4–2 win. On 14 May, Willock scored in a 4–3 defeat against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. On 19 May, he scored in his sixth consecutive league game, becoming the youngest player in Premier League history to do so at the age of 21 years and 272 days, a record previously held by

Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan, on loan from club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team. Lukaku began his senior club career playing for Ander ...

. Four days later, on the final day of the Premier League season, he scored again to equal the club record of consecutive games scored in, set by

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

. On 13 August 2021, Newcastle confirmed the signing of Willock on a six-year contract. The fee was reported to be £25 million. On 19 February 2022, Willock scored his first goal since signing permanently for the club, in a 1–1 draw against West Ham United. The following week, he scored Newcastle's second goal in a 2–0 win over

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

International career

Willock scored for the England under-16 team against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the 2014

Victory Shield The Victory Shield is an annual football tournament competed for by the under-16 teams of Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The Victory Shield had traditionally been competed for by the four Home Nations, but the Football A ...

. He also represented the England under-19 team but was one of a number of players withdrawn from selection for the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship by their club. Willock represented the England under-20 team in the

2018–19 Under 20 Elite League The 2018–19 Under 20 Elite League (sometimes referred to as the European Elite League) was an age-restricted association football tournament for national Under-20 teams. It was the second edition of the Under 20 Elite League The Under 20 Elite ...

and scored the winning goals in games against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Willock was a member of an England Under-20 side at the

2019 Toulon Tournament The 2019 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 47ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 47th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 1 to 15 June 2019. England w ...

and scored in group stage defeats against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and Chile. On 30 August 2019, Willock was included in the England under-21 squad for the first time but had to withdraw due to injury. He eventually made his U21 debut on 11 October 2019 during a 2–2 with

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in Maribor.

Personal life

Willock was born in

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: Enfield to the north-west, Haringey to the west, Hackney to t ...

, Greater London. His brothers,

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), N ...

and Matty, are also footballers. All three brothers shared a pitch when Manchester United played a reserve game against Arsenal in May 2017. He is of Montserratian descent.

Career statistics

Honours

Arsenal *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

: 2019–20 *

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

runner-up: 2018–19 Newcastle United *

runner-up:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual *

Premier League Player of the Month The Premier League Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged Premier League player each month of the season. The winner is chosen by a combination of an online public vote, which contributes to 10 ...

: May 2021

References

External links

Profile
at the Newcastle United F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Willock, Joseph 1999 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Waltham Forest English footballers Association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Premier League players England youth international footballers England under-21 international footballers Black British sportsmen English people of Montserratian descent