BBC Sport<\/a> interview.<\/p>\n\u201cI was looking around for clubs. All my friends at school were either Man United fans or Chelsea fans, and I didn\u2019t want to follow the run-of-the-mill teams. I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional rollercoaster moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
William was at school in Berkshire and it was there that he chose not to follow Arsenal, the team of choice for many of the Royal Family, or even Burnley, the team apparently backed by the King.<\/p>\n
When William was 17, he attended his first Villa game at Wembley. It was the FA Cup semi-final against Bolton Wanderers in 2000, a tie they won on penalties.<\/p>\n
The future King is a Villan<\/p>\n
\u201cI have got friends of mine who support Aston Villa, and one of the first FA Cup games I went to was Bolton v Aston Villa back in 2000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, Villa went on to lose to Chelsea [in the final].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fantastic; I sat with all the fans with my red beanie on, and I sat with all the Brummie fans and had a great time. It was the atmosphere and the camaraderie, and I really felt that there was something I could connect with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The royal\u2019s affection for Villa has only grown in the quarter of a century since. He can often be found watching on at Villa Park with his friends and his eldest son, George, who shares William\u2019s passion for football and Villa.<\/p>\n
His privileged position means he can go to places regular supporters can\u2019t. He\u2019s been known to visit Bodymoor Heath to see various Villa managers and their players at the training ground, dining and socialising with the team.<\/p>\n
The Duke of Cambridge has been seen at matches with former Villa striker John Carew but has identified his favourite player as a revered defender from before his time supporting the club.<\/p>\n
Republic of Ireland international Paul McGrath played for Villa between 1989 and 1996, winning the Coca-Cola Cup twice. He won the PFA Player of the Year award as a Villa player and is regarded as one of the club\u2019s greatest players of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s well know that the heir to the throne is a dedicated Aston Villa supporter, but how did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7714,7713,533,2832,532,2831,7710,519,7711,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-402497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-catherine","10":"tag-catherine-middleton","11":"tag-kate-middleton","12":"tag-prince-of-wales","13":"tag-prince-william","14":"tag-princess-of-wales","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family","18":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115157076747213160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}