{"id":292803,"date":"2023-10-23T17:24:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T17:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=292803"},"modified":"2023-10-23T17:24:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T17:24:44","slug":"jack-grealish-meets-up-with-his-first-football-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/jack-grealish-meets-up-with-his-first-football-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Grealish meets up with his &apos;first football hero&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jack Grealish meets up with his &#8216;first football hero&#8217; at Man City&#8217;s training ground&#8230; but can you recognise the iconic ex-Premier League striker?<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jack Grealish was starstruck after recently meeting his childhood hero<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Manchester City winger met a Premier League legend after training<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jack Grealish labelled a former Premier League star as his &#8216;first ever hero&#8217; after the Manchester City winger shared an image of himself posing with the legend.<\/p>\n<p>The England international is battling to force his way back into Pep Guardiola&#8217;s starting team after being relegated to the bench in the weekend win over Brighton and previously failing to make an appearance in the defeat to Arsenal before the international break.<\/p>\n<p>City got back to winning ways in Saturday&#8217;s victory over 2-1 Roberto de Zerbi&#8217;s side as goals from Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland kept them top of the Premier League table.<\/p>\n<p>Grealish is an avid social media poster and recently shared a selection of images to his 8.9million Instagram followers where he showcased some of his activities outside of football.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old captioned his post &#8216;outside the pitch&#8217; and featured a former Aston Villa star in one of the images that immediately captured the attention of Premier League fans of yesteryear.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/23\/17\/76899353-12662705-image-m-61_1698077338701.jpg\" height=\"487\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jack Grealish poses for a photo with his childhood hero at Manchester City&#8217;s training ground<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/23\/17\/76899377-12662705-image-a-62_1698077393591.jpg\" height=\"426\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Grealish is attempting to force his way back into Pep Guardiola&#8217;s starting Man City team<\/p>\n<p>Juan Pablo Angel starred for Villa during a six-year-spell between 2001 and 2007 before eventually leaving the English top-flight in favour of a move to the MLS.<\/p>\n<p>The Colombian was renowned for his cool finishing and mazing runs and finished his Villa tenure with 62 goals in 205 appearances for the Midlands-based club.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/23\/17\/76899351-12662705-image-a-63_1698077415813.jpg\" height=\"456\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former Aston Villa star Juan Pablo Angel (middle) made 205 appearances for the Midlands-based club<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/23\/17\/76899515-12662705-image-a-66_1698077543453.jpg\" height=\"435\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Angel has since had his long, black mane of hair chopped off since retiring from football<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no surprise to see Grealish was enamoured by the 47-year-old after first starting at Villa and becoming a modern day legend at the club prior to joining Manchester City for \u00a3100m two-years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The Man City star reshared the image on his Instagram story where he stated: &#8216;My first ever hero. If you know you know. There&#8217;s only Juan Pablo Angel.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Angel has clearly been working on his style since retiring from professional football and fashioned a well-groomed beard while sporting a white shirt, black trousers, and a jumper tied around his shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>During his time at Villa, Angel was known for his long, black, flowing hair but has since had his mane chopped off.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12662705\/Jack-Grealish-meets-football-hero-Man-City.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Jack Grealish meets up with his &#8216;first football hero&#8217; at Man City&#8217;s training ground&#8230; but can you recognise the iconic ex-Premier League striker? Jack Grealish <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/jack-grealish-meets-up-with-his-first-football-hero\/\" title=\"Jack Grealish meets up with his &amp;apos;first football hero&amp;apos;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jack Grealish meets up with his &amp;apos;first football hero&amp;apos; - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/jack-grealish-meets-up-with-his-first-football-hero\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jack Grealish meets up with his &amp;apos;first football hero&amp;apos; - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jack Grealish meets up with his &#8216;first football hero&#8217; at Man City&#8217;s training ground&#8230; but can you recognise the iconic ex-Premier League striker? 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