Umbro Blog

Ahead of tonight’s massive Manchester derby, we took the opportunity to speak to City’s man between the sticks, Joe Hart. After recently putting in some fantastic performances for his club, starring in our Show Your City video and celebrating his 25^th birthday, we caught Joe having a rare break from the game, walking his dog. Here’s what he had to say on tonight’s game, City’s fans and his time as head boy…

It seems like the whole of Manchester is looking forward to the derby, but are the players trying to treat it as ‘just another game’?

‘It’s not a normal game, it’s a big game. But every game has been big this year. With this one, with everyone having a week to look forward to it and all the build up, it should be interesting, but we’ve just got to concentrate on getting the three points and getting to the top of the league.’

You mention a lot of tough games, but do any stand out?

‘They’ve all been tough – I know that’s a bit of a clichéd thing to say, but it’s true. Our last two games, Norwich away, Wolves away, they’ve both been incredibly tough. United obvious are one of the best teams around, but we’ve got to put ourselves up there as well. Nearly every game this season we’ve been the team that people want to beat, so with United being top of the league, it’ll be nice for us to be challenging them, and it should be interesting.’

You must be pleased to be included in the PFA Team Of The Year?

‘It’s difficult with the PFA player nominations, because the nominates are made earlier in the season, it’s an honour to be chosen though and I hope to do it justice over the last few games of this season. Personally, I voted for Van Persie as Player Of The Year, Tim Krul as Young Player, and I voted for Michel Vorm as the goalkeeper in my team of the year. I definitely wanted to vote for both Vorm and Krul, not just because I’m a keeper, I genuinely think they’ve both been two of the best players in the league this season.’

As a goalkeeper, do you think about keeping clean sheets in the same way a striker might think about getting a hat trick?

‘Definitely, it’s a thing we’ve got to pride ourselves on, it’s our job on the pitch. We’ve got 15 in the league this season, and we should have comfortably had at least 20. So it’s something we want to improve, something we’re not happy with and something we definitely want to do more on.’

The fans will obviously have a big job to do in Monday’s match, what difference have they made this season?

‘The fans at City really are something else. This season at home it has been difficult at times because teams have come along, put eleven men behind the ball, and it’s hard for them to get excited about that. But when the games have come alive – Tottenham, Chelsea, Sporting Lisbon, and I’m sure against United on Monday – when it gets like that there’s no better place to play. You almost feel as if the fans are going to drag the ball into the net with the sheer force of their support. If that atmosphere is created, it helps us massively.’

You came close to scoring in that game against Lisbon – if you had the choice, would you rather grab a goal or save a penalty?

‘It’s got to be saving a penalty – if I’m up in the opposition penalty area for any reason then it’s never going to be a good thing. I never want to be up there, if I can ever help it.’

What about in a shoot out, would you take one?

‘100 million percent, I’ve always said I’d take one!’

We were reading up on some facts about you when you were younger. Is it true you were a bit of a cricket star?

‘Yeah, I was a left-arm seam bowler, winged it down as fast as I could basically. There was never a choice between football and cricket though, I was always miles better at football.’

Apparently, you were the winner of the darts competition in the England camp at the World Cup, is that true?

‘I definitely didn’t win, I know that for a fact! We did play though, we were out in Rustenburg and we didn’t have much to do, darts was one of the ways we liked to pass the time. We didn’t even play proper darts though, it was darts golf, so it was never very serious, but I did enjoy it.’

Final rumour about you, is it true that you were head boy at your school?

‘I was, I don’t know how I ended up doing it be honest. I was labelled the worst head boy at one point! I always got on well with people, I wasn’t a grade-A student by any stretch of the imagination, but I suppose I was quite responsible, I did well at sport, so maybe that’s why. I had absolutely no duties though, I got a nice badge and then lost it within a week. There was a very good head girl who knew what she was doing, so I just followed her lead!’

A lot of the other City players are involved in projects outside the game, like fashion or their own charity fundraising. Is that something you’d like to be more involved in?

‘I like supporting people to be honest, a few of the lads like to do their own things but I just like playing football if I’m honest. I’m always happy to turn up and give my support, but football takes up all my time. ‘

It was your 25th birthday recently, did you get chance to celebrate?

‘My parents came up to visit, but that was about it. I’m not a big fan of celebrating my own birthday if I’m honest, I much prefer other peoples. Presents-wise, I got a head cover for my golf clubs, not very exciting!’

We’ve recently revealed the Show Your City videos that you star in, are you worried about what the fans might come up with for launching the City kit?

No, bring it on man! I’ll be interested to see what people come up with. We do some great stuff at City to get involved with the fans, and they get to see us and see what we’re really like.’

Finally, who’s the most famous person in your phone, that’s not a footballer?

‘Erm….my mum!’

Thanks to Joe for taking the time to speak to us – if you want to launch the new Manchester City kits, make sure you head over to www.umbro.com/mcfc now. Like the look of Joe’s Geometra Pro gloves? Find out more about them over at the Umbro website.