In May 2024, Ricky Hatton took part in FourFourTwo magazine's 'My Football' feature in which non-football personalties discuss their love of the beautiful game.
What was the first game that you ever attended?
It was Manchester City against Huddersfield Town in 1987. I must have been about nine years old at the time. I always had a big family of City followers, so I was probably always going to be a blue rather than a red, but it was confirmed after this match as we won 10-1! I was with my uncle at the back of the North Stand at Maine Road. It doesn’t get much better than that for a first game. Back then, this sort of scoreline was unheard of for City fans.
Who was your childhood hero, and did you ever meet them?
I had a load of heroes – Ian Brightwell, Andy Morrison, Paul Lake, Paul Dickov, players like that – but I’d have to
say that it was a player who I’ve been fortunate enough to become really good friends with now: Georgi Kinkladze. He was brilliant. City didn’t have much to be excited about
during the time that Georgi was playing for us, but when he got on the ball, he was magic. Seeing him running at defenders
was something else.
