There will be little time for celebrating as Joe Hart, the Shrewsbury-born goalkeeper now an established Premier League star, turns 21 this weekend.
Hart, who has already achieved so much for one so young, will be concentrating fully on Manchester City’s home game with Portsmouth on Sunday, not that he minds the fact that receiving the key to the door 24 hours earlier will slip by almost unnoticed.
“I’ve got training on Saturday morning and then we’ll be staying in a hotel on Saturday night ahead of the game, but I don’t mind,” said Hart, who remains remarkably unaffected by his rapid rise to stardom.
Less than two years ago Hart, a former pupil at Shrewsbury’s Meole Brace School, was lining up for Shrewsbury Town in League Two.
Now he’s first choice for Sven Goran Eriksson’s City, playing in front of packed stadiums every week, and firmly on course to be called into the senior England squad.
“It’s all been so enjoyable and I just want to keep it going now,” he said. “Right from the age of 14, 15 when things started to happen for me, it’s been great.”
Hart has helped put Shrewsbury on the map, and he’s proud of his roots: “It’s got to happen to people somewhere, so why not people from Shrewsbury?” he said.
Hart is not one to be star- struck, although he did admit to genuine excitement on the eve of his first Manchester derby at Old Trafford in January, a match he helped City win 2-1.
“I try not to think about everything too much and just try to enjoy what I do,” he said. “It’s just football and the people I come up against are human beings. If anything, the United game was probably the most excited I’ve been before a game – the stadium, the occasion.”
Despite being elevated to first choice at Eastlands, there’s no danger of Hart taking anything for granted.
“I never want to miss a day’s training and I just want to try and keep improving,” he said. “This time last year I was third choice and it could be the same again this time next year if I don’t keep working hard.”
Hart is clearly enjoying life at City and revealed the club’s cosmopolitan squad are a close knit bunch on and off the pitch.
“I love them all to bits,” he said. “All the boys are brilliant. Everyone’s quite close and it’s good to have all the different nationalities.”
Speculation linking Hart with a place in the full England squad has been rife over recent months and, while he would love to receive the call from Fabio Capello, he insists he is happy to be first choice for the under-21s.
“I’ve played in all the under-21 games this year and I’m happy to be in the team,” he said. “We’re on a good run.
“Every player wants to get the call-up to the full team but I didn’t read too much into all the speculation. But if I did get the full call, of course I would take it and I would be very happy.”
Hart has had to quickly grown accustomed to life in the spotlight, readily accepting signing plenty of autographs and posing for photos comes with the job. “I don’t mind it at all,” he insisted. “It’s nice to meet people and they’re always very pleasant.”
Hart still makes regular visits back to Shrewsbury to visit family and friends, who have become regulars at City matches this season.
There’s also a good chance Hart will return to Shrewsbury on sporting duty this summer as he’s keen to link up with his good friends at London Road and play some Birmingham League cricket for Shrewsbury.
“I’ll speak to Sven about it and he’s pretty cool about things,” he said.