A GERMAN footballer has breached the England defence — well, the inner sanctum of the Bank of England at least.

Thomas Hitzlsperger, 24, a midfielder likely to be in Jürgen Klinsmann’s squad for the World Cup finals, has disclosed that he regularly visited Threadneedle Street to discuss high finance with Mervyn King, the bank’s governor.

Hitzlsperger, a keen follower of the financial markets, quizzed King about inflation and asked him why he couldn’t make further interest rate cuts.

The two men hit it off when Hitzlsperger played at Aston Villa for four years. King is a lifelong supporter and former vice-president of the Midlands club.

Hitzlsperger appears to be at home on a higher intellectual playing field than England players such as David Beckham or Wayne Rooney, who has run up gambling debts of £700,000.

He refers to King reverently as “the governor” just as some Premiership players describe their managers as “the gaffer”. He had started a university course in finance before he joined Villa in 2000 but had to give it up because football took over his life.

His girlfriend took a masters degree in business studies at Birmingham University.

A Bank of England insider said: “Whenever the footballer met the governor, he would pick him up on some point in the bank’s inflation reports.”

Hitzlsperger, who moved to VfB Stuttgart last year, said this weekend: “I am quite interested in politics and the economy and it was fascinating being able to speak to the governor.

“I had started a course to look after my finances but I had some problems settling in at Villa. When you are a footballer you have lots of people approaching you and trying to invest your money so it was interesting to be able to talk to the governor.”

Hitzlsperger added: “We talked a little about football because that is his passion and I would ask him questions about his business.

“I would question him when the bank published its quarterly inflation reports or its monthly interest rates. He is very busy so I went down to the Bank of England to see him a few times or would meet up with him after games at Villa Park.

“Of course, he wouldn’t give any inside information. I was not asking for that. But he is an interesting man to talk to.

“I didn’t try to give him any advice. After all, he didn’t try and tell me how to play football.”

King, 58, who became bank governor in 2003, declined to comment yesterday at his west London home.

He makes no secret of his affection for the Midlands club and has even referred in speeches to the occasion when John Maynard Keynes, the economist, attended a Villa match in 1913.

The Bank said: “Mervyn King is a long-standing friend of Doug Ellis, the Villa chairman, and a supporter of the team.

“There is no reason why Thomas should not have popped in occasionally to see him. It is up to the governor to see who he likes.”

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