Watford keeper Hamer's career started by learning English

Phrases such as ‘like I say’ . . . ‘obviously’ . . . and ‘at the end of the day’ are common, and the words ‘you know’ are chucked in to punctuate sentences regularly.

Before any long interview, I think it’s a polite requirement to undertake some reading and preparation so you know the person you’re meeting a bit better.

Sometimes, it can also unearth a few nuggets that make for an unusual angle.

• Part one of our exclusive Ben Hamer interview
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And so, when interviewing Ben Hamer, I jokingly asked my first question in German – and he answered without a second thought!

“My German isn’t the best anymore. I was fluent when I was younger,” said the keeper, who moved from Somerset to live in Germany at the age of three due to his Dad’s work commitments.

However, not only did that move enable him to become naturally bilingual, it also introduced him to football and, in particular, goalkeeping.

“I remember my Dad taking me to the Olympic Stadium in Munich, and my first experience of live football was Bayern Munich v Hamburg,” he recalled enthusiastically.

“The stadium was full, and we were close to where the keepers were warming up and I just watched Oliver Kahn.

“I was about four or five and from that moment on I wanted to be a goalkeeper.

“I started playing as a keeper in Germany when I was five, just for the local team but the coaching was really good.

“I lived and played out there for another three years and then when I was eight we moved back to Bristol.

“So then I had to learn English because I’d been to a German school. My first language from a young age was German, I didn’t speak English.

“My parents are both English but we moved out there with my Dad’s job in the MoD, and once I started going to the play groups as a toddler I spoke German.

“Mum spoke English at home, but my Dad spoke German because of his job and he was fluent. Once I started talking, Dad said the locals told him I sounded Bavarian.

“My German was really clear and clean, but then we moved back to Bristol and I was in an English school so for six months I had to do English lessons.”

Heading back to his country of birth only enhanced his chances of a career in football.

Hamer on loan at Brentford (Image: Action Images)

“As soon as I got back to England I started playing again, and I got a trial with Aston Villa when I was nine.

“But living in Bristol, that was two hours away, so not great.

“I was buzzing though because you’d watch Villa on the TV and they had Dwight Yorke up front and Mark Bosnich in goal.

“I think I had two or three games for them and they said I wasn’t good enough, plus it was a bit too far away from home.”

After that, Hamer reverted to playing his football local to home, before another chance presented itself.

“There was a Bournemouth Centre of Excellence near where I was living, and I did a couple of training sessions there.

“They sent me for a trial straight away down with the main centre of excellence at the club, and I ended up signing schoolboy forms with them.

“They released me at 14, and at that point you think it’s over.

“But luckily my school put me through for Somerset county trials, and it was playing for Somerset that a scout from Reading saw me when I was 15.

“Reading was two hours away though as I was living in Chard in Somerset.

“My Mum was living in Oxford which was half an hour from Reading, so I had to use her address to sign for Reading’s academy or else I’d have been outside their catchment area.

“And then I stayed at Reading from 15 until I was 23.”

Hamer in action for Leicester against Liverpool. (Image: Action Images)

At that stage of his career all he wanted to do was play.

“My drive was playing football. I see a lot of kids these days just happy to sit around in an Academy until they’re 23 or 24.

“That is the biggest waste of your career ever, because you could be going out and playing men’s football on loan.

“I wasn’t fussed what level I was playing at, I just wanted to go and have a tear up in men’s football. The experience of getting knocked about a bit by older players was good.”

Eager to get as much experience and game time as he could, Hamer jumped at the chance to move to Crawley Town, then of the Conference, or the National League as it is known today.

“I spent a season on loan at Crawley under John Hollins when I was 19.

“They had a 10-point deduction, they were in a bit of a pickle, and a week before the season started they were looking for a keeper.

“I played a couple of trial games, and there were a load of lads in the team that they were looking at signing.

“I must have done alright because they took me on loan, and John chucked me in against Rushden and Diamonds on the opening day.

“They had some big brutes up front like Leo Fortune-West and I remember them getting stuck into me verbally in the tunnel before the game had even started.

“But that was what I wanted, that experience. We won that game 1-0, and after four games we had wiped out the 10-point deduction.

“That season was a big step for me. I might have been getting battered every week, but I needed that to help me grow up.

“Kids who sit in an Academy and play Academy football until they 23 aren’t learning anything. You run the risk of your career slipping away from you because they haven’t done the hard yards.”

Playing against Watford for Charlton. (Image: Action Images)

The loan moves continued to help increase his experience, before he managed to emulate a feat achieved by former Watford keeper Steve Sherwood: winning Player of the Season at the club you’re on loan to.

That came in the 2008/09 season as Brentford won League Two and Hamer kept 20 clean sheets, a feat that earned him the Golden Glove award.

“I’d had loans with Brentford before that season. They were in League Two at the time and I went there first of all to be cover for Simon Brown when he was injured.

“Then I went back to Reading, but Brentford took me back in January when he’d gone and I played the rest of that season.

“Andy Scott, the manager, got me back for the season after. He was brilliant for me, and believed in me. He made his first-choice keeper.

“I think I played every game bar one that season, and I was still only 20 when I went there.”

While still being contracted to Reading, who were then in the top-flight, Hamer was rapidly gaining experience through the tiers below.

“I was at a Premier League club at the time, but in my mind I knew I wasn’t a Premier League player at that stage, which is a trap I think some of these young kids fall into.

“They believe in their heads they’re Premier League players, but until you’ve played regularly at that level then you’re not.

“In my mind, I’d ticked off playing in the Conference with Crawley, so next I needed to play League Two and I did that with Brentford.

“To me, I had to play well at each level and climb the leagues.”

Then his progress was slowed by a season with the Royals as first-team understudy.

Celebrating winning League Two at Brentford. (Image: Action Images)

“Having won League Two with Brentford I wanted to go out on loan again the next season, but the Reading manager Brendan Rodgers wouldn’t let me.

“He wanted me to stay and be the number two behind Adam Federici.

“I thought I had a chance of playing but, realistically, I was a bit naïve.

“I ended up sitting on the bench for the season, and to me that was a waste of a whole season.”

Some cynical football fans think that being a second or third-choice keeper is a great gig: all the trappings for less of the effort.

Hamer totally disagrees though.

“I’ve done it a lot in my career, being a second choice, but never through my own choice. I’ve never wanted it to be that way.

“I’ve always felt the fire in my belly that you get from playing games. I don’t train all week to sit on the bench or in the stands for a game.

“My buzz comes from playing on matchdays.

“When I joined Watford in 2022, I didn’t want to drop down divisions. I was 34 and I felt I had plenty to give at Championship level or higher.

“I believed, at that stage in my career, it wasn’t the time to start going down divisions.

“I think, maybe when you get to 38,40, then sitting on the bench might look different. Having said that, I had Mark Schwarzer with me at Leicester and he was 43, and he wasn’t happy being on the bench. He wanted to play.

“It might be different for someone like Scott Carson at Man City, who is at a top club and even as a third-choice keeper you are coming into a great environment every day with top-class players around you. That softens the blow a bit.

“But being third choice in League Two, League One, Championship, then that’s not so good.

“Personally, I don’t enjoy being on the bench one bit, but it’s the cards I’ve been dealt at some stages in my career.”

The season spent watching Federici playing for Reading from the bench convinced Hamer he needed to move on in order to continue developing himself and his career.

“I had a year left at Reading and they wanted me to sit on the bench again as the number two keeper.

“I basically told them I didn’t want to do that, and I’d rather leave and forge my own path.

“I was 23, the chance to go to Charlton came up, and it was the best thing I ever did.

“I had to leave Reading, even though they gave me my first professional contract. I think I played about five games in five years as a professional.

“Chris Powell was the manager at Charlton and Ben Roberts was the keeper coach, and they explained they had a big project.

Up against Tottenham's Lucas Moura (Image: Action Images)

“I think they signed about 20-odd players that summer, and I could see they were cherry picking pretty much the best players from the other teams in League One.

“I knew they had a good chance of going up, and for me that was the next step in my pyramid. Go to Charlton, play for them in League One and hopefully help them get to the Championship and earn my chance to play at that level.

“My focus, and my dream, was always to try and reach and play at the highest level.

“Through Charlton I got to win League One and play in the Championship, and that earned me the chance to go to Leicester and play Premier League football.

“I made my debut for Leicester quite early on, and so by the age of 26 I had achieved my goal of playing in the Premier League.”