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WITH their ridiculously huge salaries and superstar status, our top footballers could have women falling at their feet. So it’s rather sweet that many of our most famous players on the pitch are still head over heels for their childhood sweethearts.
Marcus Rashford and his childhood sweetheart Lucia Loi are said to have reconciled after splitCredit: Eamonn and James Clarke
This week The Sun revealed Manchester United star Marcus Rashford, 24, has reunited with his girlfriend of eight years, university graduate Lucia Loi, also 24, eight months after their “painful split.”
A source said: “The break was good for their relationship as it offered them both space and assurance that they wanted to make this work moving forward.”
Psychologist Emma Kenny, who runs the healthy social network site Appy, said there are a number of reasons why footballers tend to stay loyal to their first love.
She said: “Whilst a glittering football career can offer players a life beyond the average person’s wildest dreams, it comes with a unique set of problems.
“These WAGs knew these superstars before the fame and fortune.
“That gives the footballers a sense of being liked for who they truly are, not for their fast cars and luxury homes, which makes the relationship feel more authentic and safer.
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“Another element that can make these relationships alluring is the nostalgia they provide.”
Emma also notes that the sex is also going to be great.
She said: “Sex is always better with a partner who you feel completely comfortable with, so it stands to reason that people you feel familiar around and who you believe know you inside out are likely to make sex more pleasurable.”
Here, we take a look at the footballers who found their match early in life – and reveal five reasons why scoring early puts these pairs top of the love league.
Why footballers stick with their first love

Reality check early on: “Girlfriends who have dated these players growing up will have embraced as teenagers that football must be a priority, meaning they are more accepting of sharing their boyfriend with the beautiful game.”
Not gold diggers: “These women have known the football superstars before the fame and fortune. This sense of being ‘liked’ for who they truly are, as opposed to for their fast cars and luxury homes will make these relationships feel more authentic and safer.”
Unlikely to dish the dirt: “Footballers are very aware of how their liaisons can make it onto the front pages of the newspapers. Their childhood sweethearts have demonstrated a level of personal integrity that is very attractive in a long-term mate.”
Heroes set the example: “Younger football stars see a blueprint of possibility for these relationships to survive and to thrive from older stars like Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.”
Nostalgia: “Maintaining links to our past can promote a sense of belonging. Teen relationships often embody a real strength of emotional connection. If a couple have shared memories of lower responsibility levels, fun, intimate experience and hanging out with good friends, it gives lots of positives to maintaining, or rekindling, a relationship.

And where it can go wrong:
Emma said finding love at a young age can also encounter problems, as we’ve seen with the likes of Wayne Rooney and Kyle Walker straying.
She said: “As lust deepens into love, and responsibilities such as a family are introduced into the picture it can be easy to lose sight of what has been created and instead to focus on what has been lost.
“This can mean that when opportunities present themselves players are tempted to stray. In our modern society there remains a lot of pressure of men to be seen as sophisticated lovers who are adept in bed and who have notched up many conquests. For those who get into relationships early on, these uncharted waters can seem alluring, leading to some poor decision making.”

Harry and Kate Kane
Harry Kane and Kate Goodland are married with three children
The pair joined David Beckham at the launch of his academy in 2005
Fate brought England captain Harry Kane and his wife Kate together when they were just 11 years old.
A photo shows the footie-mad pair with their hero, David Beckham, at the launch of his football academy near their East London homes in 2005.
The pair had known each other since attending Larkswood Primary in Chingford before going onto Chingford Foundation School, where Becks also went.
Although pals, Harry and Kate didn’t start dating for another seven years after that picture, when they were 18.
Harry said: “When I was in school she was my friend. We always spoke, but just got closer and closer and it went from there.”
The couple, who married in a mystery exotic location in 2019, now have three children.
Emma said: “This couple have common values, interests and life goals and are both very family oriented.
“They place their energy mutually in their kids and Harry’s career and their near life long friendship sustains them as they move through the ages together.”
The Rooneys
Coleen and Wayne were just 16 when they started dating
The couple have been married for 13 years and have four sonsCredit: instagram
Those of us who remember when the teenage Wayne Rooney first made his mark on the sporting world will also remember his wife Coleen in her school uniform and chunky puffer coat.
Then just 16, Coleen had no idea what their future would hold – and she has stuck with the former England player through a lot of ups and downs.
The pair knew each other from when they were 12, when Wayne used to kickabout with Coleen’s brothers by the garages near her home in Croxteth, Liverpool.
Wayne asked her out on their first date when they were both 16, after fixing Coleen’s bike in the street, and he proposed when he was 17 at a petrol station.
Before they married, in 2004, Wayne admitted to visiting brothels and sleeping with a middle-aged prostitute.
Coleen revealed in her autobiography that she was heartbroken, writing: “At that time in our relationships, I’d never even slept with Wayne.”
‘Positives outweigh downsides’
Since then the couple, who have four sons, have weathered cheating accusations, Wayne’s driving ban for drink-driving and, last year, pictures of him slumped and sleeping in a chair while semi-naked party girls danced around him.
Emma said: “Coleen is the glue that sticks this relationship together.
“No matter the judgements of others, she is deeply family oriented and cares hugely about her children and her husband.
“She is unusually able to think about the bigger picture when it comes down to some of her husband’s poor choices and forgives certain behaviours as she feels that the multitude of positives outweigh any downsides to their relationship.
“They have known each other since childhood and have overcome many challenges together and this is likely why their relationship has endured.”
Gareth Bale and wife Emma
Gareth Bale met his wife Emma at high school in Cardiff
Gareth Bale met wife Emma Rhys-Jones at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, and she inspired his famous goal celebration in which he makes a heart shape with his hands.
He once explained: “My girlfriend asked what I would do if I scored. I told her I would make the heart sign.”
A homeboy, the Wales captain was never one to put himself in the sights of fame-hungry women in nightclubs.
He said: “I don’t go out, so I don’t get attention from girls. I just like chilling indoors, watching DVDs or going for a meal with the family.”
He and Emma tied the knot in a secret ceremony in Majorca in 2009, attended by just 60 of their close friends and family.
Emma’s dad, Martin, and her grandparents, John and Eva McMurray – who helped raise her – were absent due to a family rift, and guests were only told the location 24 hours beforehand.
The couple welcomed their fourth child, Xander, last year.
Lionel and Antonela Messi
An early picture, released in 2019, shows Lionel and his future wife Antonela on the beach as kidsCredit: Social Media
The couple now have three sons togetherCredit: Social Media – Refer to Source
Widely recognised as one of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi and his wife Antonela also have one of the greatest love stories.
They have known each other since they were young children, and there is a fantastic photo of the pair playing on an Argentine beach in 1998.
Antonela, who was about to turn 10 in the picture, was pals with the footballer, but on that day she had travelled to Punta Magotes to see her cousin, Lucas Scaglia, one of Messi’s future teammates, play.
Barcelona legend Lionel moved to Spain to join the youth division of the club at 13, but he never forgot Antonela.
While studying dental medicine in Argentina, Antonela lost her best friend in a car crash – and Lionel immediately booked a flight home to comfort her.
She moved back to Barcelona with him and, now with three children to boot, the rest is history.
Jordan Pickford and wife Megan
Jordan Pickford married his childhood sweetheart Megan Davison in 2020
England and Everton stopper Jordan Pickford, 27, and his wife Megan Davison like to keep their relationship low-key.
So much so that they shunned the usual lavish showbiz wedding in March 2020, and instead tied the knot at a register office, with the groom turning up in ripped jeans and a baseball hat.
The bride did wear white – a cuddly white jacket, which she teamed with black jeans and boots.
The pair had intended to celebrate with a lavish wedding in the Maldives, but it has been on hold since Covid.
Jordan and Megan met at St Robert of Newminster Catholic School, Tyne and Wear, and reportedly started dating at 14.
Their son, Arlo, was born in 2019.
Harry Maguire and fiancée Fern Hawkins
England star Harry Maguire is reportedly set to tie the knot with Fern Hawkins this year
Harry Maguire, 28, and his fiancée Fern Hawkins are another teenage love story.
The Sheffield pair got together when the Manchester United player was 18 and Fern just 16.
Harry popped the question on a romantic trip to Paris in 2018 and last summer they celebrated 10 years together.
They have two daughters, Lillie, two, and Piper, one, and earlier this month, the family moved into their “dream” £4m Cheshire mansion.
According to reports, the pair are planning to marry in a French castle later this year and have sent out invitations.
A source told The Mirror: “No one is being given the address of the venue until they are on their way. That way they can keep it under wraps.”
Kalvin Phillips and girlfriend Ashleigh Behan
Kalvin Phillips and his long term girlfriend Ashleigh BehanCredit: Instagram / @ashhhbx
Leeds United and England midfielder Kalvin Phillips, 26, met his girlfriend Ashleigh Behan two years before signing his first professional contract in 2013.
They met at Farnley Academy, West Yorkshire.
Ashleigh, a make-up artist, said on her Instagram stories: “I literally have the most embarrassing pics of us together from like Year Nine onwards.”
Ashleigh recently revealed the moment Kalvin told her about his shock call-up from England manager Gareth Southgate to join the Euro 2020 squad.
She said: “I just screamed and cried instantly, I think the checkout guy thought I was mental.”
Kyle Walker and wife Annie
Kyle Walker and Annie Kilner with one of their three childrenCredit: Getty Images – Getty
It was revealed earlier this month that Kyle Walker and girlfriend Annie Kilner had secretly wed.
Theirs has been a rollercoaster of a relationship like no other.
Annie, mum to their three children, has forgiven Kyle’s betrayals, including him fathering a love child.
After Instagram influencer Lauryn Goodman gave birth to his son, Annie said in 2020: “What he has done to me and our children is obscene.”
They met in their hometown of Sheffield and started dating when Kyle was 17 and Annie was just 15.
Referring to the couple’s low-key wedding, a source told The Sun: “It’s fair to say they’ve had more than their fair share of ups and downs over the years but they’ve survived each one.
“They didn’t want any fanfare. They just wanted to be married.”
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SPURS legend Jimmy Greaves will be remembered as one of the all-time footballing greats and the King of White Hart Lane.But by his side throughout his phenomenal career and beyond, was his doting wife, Irene Barden.
Jimmy Greaves and Irene first got married when they were just 18 years oldCredit: Getty
They remarried in 2017 after Jimmy suffered his second strokeCredit: Mirrorpix
Jimmy – who died today aged 81 – and Irene married when they were just 18, and have been together ever since.
There were some heartbreaking bumps in the road including the tragic loss of their second child and the couple’s separation for 18 months at the height of Jimmy’s battle with alcohol.
But, over the last 60 years, they always found a way back to each other.
And Irene, 81, never left his side for more than an hour after he suffered a stroke five years ago that left him wheelchair-bound.
“We’ve always adored each other, without a doubt,” Irene said, earlier this year. “I never wanted anyone else.”
Childhood sweethearts
Jimmy and Irene were just 18 years old when they first got married in a small ceremony at a registry office in Romford, Essex in March 1958.

At the time, Jimmy was playing for Chelsea, earning £17 a week and £100 if he played for England.
Irene wore a smart belted beige dress and jacket with white gloves and a white hat for the ceremony.
But tragedy struck the couple just three years later.
Agonising loss of 5-month-old son
In 1961, Jimmy and Irene’s second child, Jimmy Junior, died from pneumonia aged just five months.
The couple – who also had a daughter, Lynn, now 61, by this point – were left in despair.
Jimmy once said: “Jimmy’s death devastated us, it nearly drove us out of our minds.
“We were inconsolable.
“You grieve for the death of any loved one but when it is for your own child no words can describe that grief.”
Irene has said: “He was five months old and there was no rhyme or reason about it. It just happened. 
“He’d been a healthy baby, 9lb at birth, and when he died we didn’t speak about it — you were told to go home and get on with your lives. 
“There was no counselling.”
Irene and Jimmy went on to have three more children, Mitzi, now 59, Danny, 56, and Andy, 54 – and she says she still thinks of Jimmy Jr too.
“I still think of him. You always do,” she said.”
“I’ve still got a lovely picture of him hanging on my wall with all the other family photos.”
Selling jewellery to keep the family home
Football became a guiding light for Jimmy, but his top flight career ended at West Ham in 1971. 
It was at the Hammers that his alcoholism began. 
“He’d just shut himself away in a room at home and drink,” Irene said.
Some days he would go straight from training to the pub and stay for the rest of the day.
At his worst he was downing 20 pints of beer and a bottle of vodka a day. 
Meanwhile, Irene was training as a nurse and raising their four children single-handedly.
At one point, as Jimmy lost himself to the bottle, Irene had to sell her jewellery to keep the family home.
“I just got fed up with him,” she said. “I realised it was no good nagging or pouring his drink down the sink because he’d hide bottles everywhere. I had to wait until he was ready to stop himself.
“He’d promise to give up but he carried on. 
“I’d say to him: ‘You’ll drink yourself to death and you won’t be here to see the kids grow up.’ 
“But nothing worked.”
He and Irene divorced at the height of his alcoholism in 1977, when she “told him to go”.
‘I was at the bottom of the heap’
His marriage over, Jimmy was living in a one-bedroomed flat in Wanstead, east London, scraped a living selling sweaters from a market stall.
Destined never to see 40, he even ended up sleeping rough.
Did it prick his pride, he was asked in 2005?
“I didn’t really have any,” he said “I was at the bottom of the heap and what had happened in the past was the past.
“I didn’t look at it and think, ‘Well I’ve done this and I’m entitled to that’. Life, I found, was not like that.
“I basically felt pretty worthless and there wasn’t a lot left in me. I didn’t have any plans.
“My sole ambition in life at that time was to remain sober, nothing else, that was my only target.”
Couldn’t live without each other
It was just 18 months later, when they found they couldn’t live without each other, Jimmy and Irene got back together – with him promising to stay sober.
Irene recalled: “Jimmy came back home. He said: ‘I’m ready to give up drinking now’ — and I just knew he meant it this time.”
Jimmy took himself to Warley Hospital in Brentwood, where he’d been twice before.
This time would be “third time lucky”.
“There was a small pub on the corner,” Irene said. “He went there and had his last pint of beer. 
“And that was it. He stopped.”
Remarrying in 2017
Although Jimmy and Irene lived together ever since, they only remarried in 2017.
Their wedding was a small ceremony in their village church.
“Oh, it was a lovely day,” Irene said. 
But she added how they always felt like they’d never split up, and still celebrated their anniversary every year throughout their marriage.
She said, earlier this year, “We’ve been together 63 years now and we always considered ourselves married, even when we weren’t. 
“We still went out for our anniversary.”
‘I’ve lost my best mate’
Jimmy suffered a minor stroke in 2012, and then a more major one in 2016, which left him partially incapacitated.
Before he died, Irene said: “He was so charismatic, so funny. Now he’s a shell of the man he was. After his last stroke, I didn’t think he’d make it.
“And in a way I think it would have been better if he’d gone.
“This is no life for him. 
“He doesn’t want to be here. He says: ‘Get me something so I can go.’ And I tell him: ‘You’ll have us both in jail.’ 
“Sometimes I wish he could just slip away peacefully. I know that’s what he wants.”
The former footballer had constant care around the clock, and Irene never left his side for more than an hour.
“Although many people have worse lives, as a carer you feel a bit trapped,” she confessed. “My eldest daughter Lynn lives nearby and she’s in my bubble, so she calls round quite a bit. 
“But I can’t leave Jim for more than an hour.
“Sometimes we have a tiff and I say: ‘That’s it. You’re going into a home!’ But I don’t mean it, of course. I’d never, ever do that. 
“I’ve promised the children I won’t, too. I’d never want that for Jim.”
“We’ve always adored each other, without a doubt,” she finished. “I never wanted anyone else. But I look at him now and think he’s not the man he was.
“I’ve lost my best mate. There was no one like him.”
Irene has said she feels like she’s “lost her best mate”Credit: Getty – Contributor
Jimmy and Irene with their daughter, MitziCredit: Rex
Jimmy and Irene with their youngest son, AndrewCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Jimmy with his eldest daughter, LynnCredit: Rex
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