Current Rangers goalkeeper, Jack Butland, has admitted that he’s always been a huge admirer of one Celtic player throughout his entire career.
Butland joined the Ibrox club on a free transfer and whilst he tried to help dislodge Celtic as the dominant force in Scottish football, he can’t help but continue to cast admiring glances across the River Clyde to Hoops goalkeeper, Joe Hart.
The 36-year-old veteran has been absolutely pivotal in Celtic asserting themselves as Scotland’s top club over the past two seasons and Butland has shared just how much admiration he has for the former England international.
Butland said [Scottish Football Podcast], “As much as I love the guy he’s on the other side right now. I was lucky to have, sort of in my youth at Birmingham coming through the academy, Joe came on loan from Man City for a season and did unbelievable.
“He was England. So I was like, ‘I’ve got to be this guy.’
“He was the guy, the following year was Ben Foster, that was like back to back to top, top goalkeepers. English goalkeepers as well.
“Which is obviously a massive influence to watch and learn from two very different goalies but two top goalies.
“So Joe is someone that throughout my career looked up to but targeted at the same time as like, I want to be like this guy, but ultimately he was where I wanted to be.
“I wanted to take that. Take that position if you like. So yeah, I’ve been asked I’ve been asked quite a bit about him obviously since my time here and the obvious connections.
“But he’s someone maybe a few years down the line, I’ll speak a little bit more open and honest about.
“For now he certainly was a role model for me throughout my career, someone who I respect greatly but for this season, at least, he’s on the other side.”
Joe Hart’s incredible Celtic career
It’s no secret that Hart came to Celtic when the club was in turmoil. Having just come off the back of the COVID season trophyless, Hart had the unenviable task of taking over from the Greek tragedy that was Vasilis Barkas.
I remember when Hart first took the Number One jersey there was genuine trepidation as to how he was going to do. After all, he hadn’t played competitive football for well over a year and the Celtic fans were still traumatised after watching Barkas for a full season in goal.
But it is fair to say his signing has been an unmitigated success. A treble winner, Hart is now only the second Celtic player in our history to have won every domestic honour in Scotland and England after the legendary Kenny Dalglish.
With five winners medals in two seasons, Hart is desperate to add more to his name after he announced his intention to retire from football at the end of the season last week.
With the league and Scottish Cup still to go, Butland’s admiring glances towards his hero will only deepen should Hart pick up the last two remaining domestic trophies before he hangs up his gloves.
In other news, Pat Bonner says Celtic fans did something really ‘strange’ during the Motherwell game
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