Joe Hart ready to embrace Italian culture at Torino after loan move from Manchester City
Friday 16 September 2016 12:42, UK
Joe Hart says he is ready to embrace the Italian culture after moving to Torino on a season-long loan from Manchester City.
The England international quickly fell down the pecking order under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, as Willy Caballero played in the opening games of the season before Claudio Bravo joined in a £17.1m deal from Barcelona.
After being relegated to third choice goalkeeper at the Etihad Stadium, Hart opted to join Serie A side Torino on loan, although he had a debut to forget on Sunday, as his blunder led to an Atalanta equaliser.
Hart has emphasised the importance of getting to grips with a new culture, and even opened Friday's press conference by speaking in Italian.
"I don't speak very good Italian (yet). I think that's obvious but I am doing my best to learn and buy into the culture because this really is a beautiful part of the world," said Hart.
"I'm really excited to be here and play football in a different league. This new experience excites me and I'm going to work hard every day to improve myself as a person and as a player.
"I'm doing [language] lessons at every opportunity. I think it was most important for me to learn how speak and communicate with the players on the football field before I could have a conversation in a coffee shop.
"Now I'll be looking to take major strides forward top really improve my Italian in order to interact on a daily basis."
Hart, who has made 266 appearances for Manchester City, acknowledges moving to Italy to pursue first-team football is the biggest alteration he has made to make in his career.
"Change is quite normal to me obviously moving to a different country with a different language is a bigger change than usual but it's something that I have been very used to in my career, it's been something that I have embraced and this is no different," added Hart.