Kyle Walker in copycat Twitter storm with Spurs team-mate Georges-Kevin N'Koudou and Arsenal's Hector Bellerin

The Tottenham Hotspur full-back was accused of stealing tweets from his team-mate and North London rival, and promptly labelled 'Mr 0-Banter' by Jan Vertonghen

Thursday 09 February 2017 15:32 GMT
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Kyle Walker has been accused of thieving his 'Catinho' tweet
Kyle Walker has been accused of thieving his 'Catinho' tweet (@kwalker2/Twitter)

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Louise Thomas

Louise Thomas

Editor

Tottenham Hotspur full-back Kyle Walker has found himself involved in a surreal social media storm, after appearing to plagiarise a tweet from team-mate Georges-Kevin Nkoudou – who was then revealed to have copied the timeline of Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin in the first place.

Walker was photographed practising his free-kick technique at Tottenham’s state-of-the-art Enfield training centre, and later uploaded the picture to his @kylewalker2 Twitter feed, along with a picture of a cat appearing to kick a football.

The cat in question is Catinho – an internet phenomenon whose popularity has skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Walker asked his 674k followers to decide whether he had superior technique to the feline, but his tweet did not meet with the answers he was surely expecting.

Instead, the observant Tottenham Twitter community noted that summer arrival Nkoudou had already made a similar joke back in December, something the French midfielder was quickly alerted to. “My bro Kyle Walker is trying to steal my tweets…” the 21-year old complained.

Members of Tottenham’s squad were quick to weigh in on Walker’s shameless act of plagiarism, with Dele Alli labelling Walker a ‘snake’, and Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen revealing that Walker is known to his team-mates as ‘Mr 0-Banter’.

However, the plot thickened when Arsenal supporters took note of the brewing storm.

It wasn’t long before the following tweet was unearthed, posted a full two months before N’Koudou’s suspiciously similar effort.

This is not the first time Kyle Walker's social media usage has made the headlines, as just two weeks ago the England full-back took to Instagram to emphatically deny rumours he was considering a summer move to Manchester United.

Newspaper reports suggested United were preparing a double move for Walker and his fellow Spurs full-back Danny Rose, but Walker was quick to squash the speculation.

"Tottenham ’til I die," Walker said when quizzed about the rumours in a live Q&A session with Spurs fans on the platform.

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