Pope ready to milk his big cap chance
Fighting for a place in England’s World Cup squad might be tough work for Burnley keeper Nick Pope, but it beats riding a milk float in the early hours of the morning.
Pope is relishing a maiden call-up for the friendlies against Holland (Friday) and Italy (Tuesday), joining Joe Hart, Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland in battling for three seats on the plane to Russia.
He is the least experienced of the trio, but is enjoying by far the best season, with 10 clean sheets since taking over from injured clubmate Tom Heaton in September.
Whether it comes in Amsterdam, at Wembley against the Azzurri four days later or even on the biggest stage of all in Russia, Pope has his eyes on the big prize.
“There’s got to be one number one (with England) and I want it to be me, who wouldn’t?” he said. “It’s a massive honour. You’ve got to be hungry in football and you’ve got to be greedy as well. It’s a new challenge and a challenge I want to take on. “It’s obviously a day I never thought I’d see come and, now it has, it’s massive elation for me and everyone close to me.”
A glance at Pope’s CV shows he has never had it easy.
Let go by Ipswich as a teenager he went on to study business marketing and sports science at college and recalled: “I had a couple of jobs… I worked in Next and on a milk round. I was on an electric float, a 4am-er in Soham. It didn’t pay much.”
“It’s been a hard ride. But you have to prove yourself at every level to get to the next one.”