by Former Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart may have only hung up his gloves a few months ago but he is already settling into his new job as Match of the Day pundit.
The 37-year-old is back in the studio on Sunday to give his take on the weekend’s action, having been announced alongside Theo Walcott as a new addition to the show’s iconic series.
Hart has impressed in his first few appearances and has been praised for providing insight from a goalkeeping perspective, having played at the highest level for years. He retired from Celtic at the end of last season when they won the Scottish Premiership, and has also represented the likes of West Ham, Burnley and Torino during his career.
He also won 75 caps for England and, with Manchester City, won two Premier League titles and as many FA Cups as League Cups, and was awarded the Premier League’s Golden Glove four separate times.
Although he earned a reputation for being very vocal on the field, Hart tends to stay out of the limelight with little known about his private life. Here are some things you might not know about the new MOTD pundit.
READ MORE: The BBC Match of the Day pundit left TV after the Euros to become a preacher
READ MORE: The real reason is ‘fuming’ Des Lynam quit TV years ago and started a strange new job
Huge net worth
Hart is believed to have a whopping net worth of around £23 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
While at Manchester City, he became the highest paid goalkeeper in the world when he put pen to paper on a new contract worth £120,000 a week, excluding bonuses.
He worked with brands including Nike, Umbro, Hugo Boss and Vauxhall, and also starred in adverts for Head & Shoulders shampoo, which at the time earned him a rival following.
Confrontation between wives and Katie Price
Hart has been married to wife Kimberly since June 2015, when they tied the knot in Florence, Italy, after dating for six years.
Together, they have two children, a son and a daughter. Although not much is known about Kimberly, it was previously reported that she is a cosmetologist.
However, she made headlines in 2015 when she got into a public spat with Katie Price, with the media personality ruffling feathers with a tweet posted on the couple’s wedding day.
Hart and Price are believed to have met at a charity event in 2010 but it is not known if they saw each other again after that. However, the model said in a now-deleted tweet: “All Harts go out to the married couple – is he going to tell her the truth about us?”
The following year, during England’s Euro 2016 campaign, she added fuel to the fire by sharing a photo of her Hart waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, adding the caption: “Have fun today with these boys , good for you England.”
At the time, a source told The Sun: “It’s hardly the perfect start to married life. Considering the previous day’s highlights, it’s an unwelcome distraction. Unfortunately, Katie seems to have realized the impact this tweet could have on the newlyweds a few hours after writing it.”
Another said: “Kim couldn’t care less. She thinks Katie is a clueless bimbo.”
Mad live TV gaming
Back in 2014, Hart was between the sticks for England during their group stage clash with Italy at the World Cup in Brazil.
With the Azzurri 2-1 going into the final moments of the game, things were not going well for England and Hart let his frustrations boil over, and his outburst was caught on live television.
After Andrea Pirlo narrowly avoided Italy’s third with a stunning free-kick effort that went off the bar, the goalkeeper wanted to get things moving again as soon as possible and he did screaming at the ball boy to “give me the f***ing ball. “ while kicking the billboards in anger.
A clip of the incident went viral, with many criticizing Hart for his outburst. However, others defended him and suggested that his teammates needed to show the same level of passion throughout the match.
The goalkeeper later addressed the incident while appearing on Jake Humphrey’s High Performance podcast and admitted his behavior was “100 per cent wrong”. However, he said he was “desperate” to keep England in the World Cup and was “disappointed” by the slow response from the ball boys.
“So, one of the craziest free kicks I’ve ever seen, deep in the jungle, in the Amazon rainforest against Italy, and the whole game the ball boys or ball girls were balling and making balls at the moment, the event. ,” he said.
“I was there to try to win a game and we are 2-1 down there, I think we are in extra time and I needed the ball. I was tired that I had to wait for the ball to come back. because I realized there wasn’t much to go and that’s how I felt.”
He added: “It’s 100 per cent wrong. I shouldn’t be shouting at anybody ‘Give me the ball’ like that, but I needed that ball because I wanted to get it in play and go on to keep England in the World Cup.
“It was just me being desperate to keep my country in the World Cup and looking back, this happened a long time ago and it’s only recently that everyone seems to be screaming that in my face”
