Wolves keeper Hahnemann owes Euro career to Aston Villa

Wolves goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann has revealed how his career in Europe was assisted by Aston Villa.

The American veteran is enjoying his most successful season and chasing a new one-year Wolves deal.

Hahnemann told the Sunday Mercury: “Knowing that I wanted to come over here, I paid my own way and I trained at Aston Villa for a number of years, then went to West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday in a bid to get a deal.

“But I went to Villa for three years in a row for three weeks, sometimes just two weeks. I came over when Mark Bosnich was still around and Nigel Spink, Michael Oakes. Then I came back the next year and it was the same sort of group and then the year after it was David James.

“I’ve been to a lot of different places, seen a lot of stuff and seen a lot of different goalkeepers. It was pretty neat and they were great at Villa.

“I knew Paul Barron as he would come and coach at my university coach’s soccer camp. He kept seeing me every summer and eventually he said ‘wait a second, you’re getting pretty good. Why don’t you come over?’

“The first time was more of a favour and then I kept coming back and kept improving. The problem we have in America is that you’re at high school until you’re 18 and then university and you’re still not playing full-time.

“At that point European keepers are playing every day, I came into the game fairly late, which is one of the reasons why I’m still playing now.”