Desmond Sinclair Walker (born 26 November 1965) is an English football coach and former player who played as a defender.

[citation needed] Forest manager Brian Clough, known for giving opportunities to youth players, gave Walker his début in March 1984 at the age of 18.

[citation needed] Forest won the Football League Centenary Tournament in April 1988 (their first senior trophy since 1981).

However they were unable to compete in the UEFA Cup as English clubs were still banned from European competitions following the Heysel Stadium disaster.

Walker won his second League Cup winner's medal when Forest retained the trophy in 1990 with victory over Oldham Athletic.

Walker was now aged 25, and despite playing for one of England's most successful clubs, he had not yet been given a chance to prove himself in European competition.

[citation needed] After the Euro 1992 finals, Walker was sold for £1.5 million to Italian side Sampdoria, who were coached by Sven-Göran Eriksson at the time.

His time at Sheffield Wednesday brought mixed fortunes, although he played in the overwhelming majority of the club's games following his arrival.

In that first season, Wednesday finished seventh in the Premier League, but were defeated in what was effectively their last chance of silverware in February.

Amid Sheffield Wednesday's growing financial strain associated with their fall from the top league, Walker was released from his contract in 2001.

He briefly trained with his ex-Forest teammate Nigel Clough at Burton Albion (where he was manager) and a short stint in the US playing for the MetroStars in their 9/11 benefit matches against D.C. United.

[6] On 16 May 2005, a testimonial match was held in his honour – this drew 13,886 spectators with guest appearances from Stuart Pearce, Ian Wright, Emile Heskey and Nigel Clough.

It was not long before Walker was a regular starter in the side against competition from Adams, Terry Butcher and Mark Wright.

At the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Walker started all seven of the games in which England would play, gaining international acclaim.

Rob Bagchi, writing for The Guardian in 2010, praised his performances, arguing that Walker's "speed, anticipation and mastery of the fair tackle were reminiscent of Bobby Moore.

"[9] Walker subsequently became England's defensive lynchpin after Butcher's retirement, continuing to feature regularly after Graham Taylor had taken over as manager.

With four minutes remaining the exceptionally-paced Marc Overmars became the first person in Walker's then 52 internationals to beat the defender for speed.

Walker's defensive authority was compromised by Taylor's imposition of an untested wing back system.

San Marino scored the fastest ever goal in a World Cup qualifier, after just eight seconds, capitalising on an under hit backpass from Stuart Pearce.

Lineker said of him, "Des wasn't the greatest footballer in the world but he was unbelievably quick and had a brilliant defensive mind.

Brian Clough used to stick him on me when we played – he always put him man-to-man which was quite unusual in those days – and he used to sing that song 'You'll never beat Des Walker!'

"[14] At set pieces for his teams, Walker would stay back to provide defensive cover rather than supplement the attack, reflected in the fact that he only scored once in around 800 senior games.

He incurred a remarkably low number of bookings during the first 10 years of his career, despite often dispossessing opponents with sliding challenges from all directions.