{"id":266811,"date":"2025-11-06T15:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/266811\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:43:08","slug":"john-mcginn-every-year-i-have-to-prove-myself-against-a-younger-or-sexier-player-aston-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/266811\/","title":{"rendered":"John McGinn: \u2018Every year I have to prove myself against a younger or sexier player\u2019 | Aston Villa"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McGinn has spent the best part of half an hour reflecting on his journey to this point, his next appearance for Aston Villa his 300th for the club, when he volunteers something of a confession. Asked whether he has lasered in on nutrition to maximise performance, perhaps inspired by Erling Haaland revealing his penchant for raw milk and honey<\/a>, the Villa captain smiles a little sheepishly. \u201cYeah, I have, which makes me feel quite uncomfortable because I\u2019m from a very humble part of the world,\u201d he says, referring to his roots in Clydebank, a few miles north-west of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will all laugh at me and wind me up for it but I do have a chef at home. I think there is a stigma towards it: \u2018Who do you think you are?\u2019 Which I get, because it used to be me thinking that. I was more nervous about telling my siblings and my mum and dad about the idea of having a chef than actually having one. My mum and dad were always running us about to training and if my dad was cooking it was always whatever is left in the fridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it is an investment in myself and it keeps me in the best possible condition. I am a big kid, so if I never had these things in place, the structure of Mikey in the house every night cooking me healthy food, I would pop to Nando\u2019s every now and again. Unfortunately, he is a Coventry fan \u2013 he turned up one day in their kit \u2013 but we\u2019ll let him off because we have a good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGinn is in typically good form, discussing everything from his contract extension until 2028, which would see him complete a decade at the club, a memorable first conversation with Unai Emery that left him on edge and a pre-season boot camp in Arizona, when Natalie Kollars, a performance specialist who works with NFL, NHL and UFC athletes, put him through his paces in the summer. \u201cAye, she absolutely beasted me! It was 45-degree heat. It was really, really tough. The benefits of that were that I came back in the best shape I\u2019ve been in for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGinn, an endearing and self-deprecating character, was walking around Edinburgh\u2019s fringe festival when the life-changing call came that Villa wanted to sign him from Hibernian. He has proven a \u00a32.7m bargain. He helped Villa to the Premier League in his first season, scoring what proved to be the winning goal at Wembley<\/a>, and to the heights of the Champions League quarter-finals last campaign, scoring against PSG at Villa Park. He turned 31 last month but is as central to the team as ever. He is vastly experienced and he acknowledges sometimes there is clamour for a younger model.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that every season, genuinely,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you come down from Scotland, you always have a point to prove. You always feel like: \u2018Can I compete?\u2019 When you get older, each birthday actually becomes quite miserable because you think: \u2018Oh no.\u2019 My dad said: \u2018What\u2019s up?\u2019 I said: \u2018Well, I\u2019ve hit the big 3-0.\u2019 Each year I\u2019ll have the same challenge, I\u2019ll have someone younger or sexier, with a longer name or someone who has signed for \u00a350m, but it just makes you that wee bit more determined to prove your worth. There will be a time at some point where I\u2019ll have to hold my hands up: \u2018All right, this player\u2019s actually better than me\u2019 or maybe the level does exceed me, but at this moment I don\u2019t think that\u2019s anywhere close and I\u2019m determined to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n

John McGinn scores against Feyenoord in the Europa League earlier this season, the third in a run of three goals in three games. Photograph: Maurice van Steen\/Reuters<\/p>\n

McGinn believes Emery\u2019s trust helped shake the perception of him as purely \u201ca grafter\u201d and he remembers his first meeting with the manager, three years ago, like it was yesterday. \u201cIt was probably the most fascinating half an hour I\u2019ve had in my career. [It was] the night before we played Manchester United and I hadn\u2019t really spoken to him much. He told me I was maybe going to start, maybe not, so he kind of put me on edge. He said: \u2018I\u2019ve watched your last 10 matches in detail and [they were] not so good.\u2019 But then he said: \u2018Luckily for you, I\u2019ve watched the 10 before and the 10 before that, so I believe you can be an asset to us.\u2019 He judged with his eyes and he thought that I was worthy of staying around and not only that he kept me as captain. He has been incredible and hopefully over the next few years I can repay that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, McGinn\u2019s focus is on Villa returning to winning ways in the Europa League against Maccabi Tel Aviv, a politically supercharged match<\/a>. Villa, defeated at Go Ahead Eagles in their last match<\/a>, are among the favourites to win the competition but, regardless of whether they achieve that ambition, McGinn believes they can return to the Champions League. He talks about how a trio of near-misses drive his \u2013 and Villa\u2019s \u2013 desire to succeed; they lost the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City<\/a> in 2020, for which McGinn was injured, came unstuck against Olympiakos in the Conference League semi-finals in 2024<\/a> and against PSG in the last eight in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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John McGinn is hoping his season will end with Scotland going to the World Cup finals. Photograph: Michael Zemanek\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were big nights, big moments for us in which we haven\u2019t delivered,\u201d he says with searing honesty. \u201cEvery time we go into a big game now we have that determination in the back of our heads to prove this team we have built over the past five or six years is worth more than a quarter-final, worth more than a semi-final. The determination, I can feel it this year. I can feel we want to prove a point. I think until we do that there will always be questions. As captain you feel that probably twice as much but when that day finally comes you will feel it positively, twice as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, his attention will switch to Scotland\u2019s crunch double-header against Greece and Denmark and qualifying for a first World Cup since 1998<\/a>. \u201cHopefully I\u2019ll be back in America for the World Cup, but if not I\u2019ll be back there again,\u201d he says of more training, after his longstanding agent challenged him to return on the first day of pre-season a different animal. Mission accomplished. \u201cIn the Premier League, everyone is getting so athletic. The challenge is to keep as close to them as possible. I\u2019ll never be the fastest or the strongest, but I want to give myself the best chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For club and country, he hopes the biggest moments are still to come. \u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing journey and I have achieved so much, but everyone knows what would eclipse what we have already achieved,\u201d McGinn says, alluding to Villa\u2019s near 30-year wait for a major trophy. \u201cIf it takes me until I\u2019m 37, 38, or even 40, I\u2019m just so determined for that to happen. Aye, hopefully the best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John McGinn has spent the best part of half an hour reflecting on his journey to this point,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-266811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}