The man replacing Joe Hart: Claudio Bravo burst onto the world stage at 30 to claim the Barcelona No 1 shirt… and he’s even scored a free kick!

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Joe Hart might not appreciate being consoled right now by the heartwarming tale of how life began at 30 for Claudio Bravo. 

But the facts are there in black and white – Hart is only 29; for the 31-year-old Bravo the last three or four seasons of his career have been his best by some considerable distance.

Back in 2014 Barcelona were looking to replace Victor Valdes and Sporting Director, and former keeper himself, Andoni Zubizarreta had chosen highly rated 22-year-old Borussia Monchengladbach keeper Marc-andre Ter Stegen.

Claudio Bravo is on the verge of a £17m move from Barcelona to Manchester City

Bravo celebrates Barca's triumph in the Spanish Super Cup over Sevilla

It was going to take two men to replace Valdes, however, and new coach Luis Enrique in his first season in the job, wanted the club to sign an experienced No 2.

The choice was between Bravo and Willy Caballero, who was leaving cash-strapped Malaga. 

Luis Enrique preferred the Real Sociedad keeper and Zubizarreta agreed so at 31-years of age Bravo joined Barcelona and Caballero moved to Manchester City as Joe Hart’s deputy.

Bravo was supposed to be No 2 at Barca but such was his application in pre-season, seizing this late chance to play for a big club, that he made a huge impression on the Barcelona coaching staff.

Joe Hart has found himself out of favour at the start of the new season at City

Hart was involved in a deep conversation with Pep Guardiola during training on Tuesday

Ter Stegen started the season injured and so Bravo, the son of a truck driver from Viluco – a small city of 2,000 inhabitants famous for it's vineyards, sat just south of the Chilean capital Santiago – began the league campaign in goal.

He was faultless and so he kept the gloves, frustrating Ter Stegen who had to accept playing just the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.

The key to his success at Barcelona has been his consistency. One Catalan journalist who covers the club home and away told me this week: ‘You could say he’s a 7/10 keeper as opposed to a 9/10 because he rarely makes match-winning saves. 

'But the key is he almost never makes mistakes. In two years in goal for Barcelona I can only remember one mistake – a shot from distance from Sevilla’s Ever Banega that he allows to go through his hands at the end of his first season. 

'It’s a level of consistency that is very hard to find.’

Bravo has enjoyed enormous success at Barcelona after joining the club in 2014

The Chile goalkeeper holds aloft the UEFA Super Cup following victory over Sevilla

Bad games were equally rare at Real Sociedad. As his performances helped them finish fourth (qualifying for the Champions League for the first time) and seventh in his last two seasons at the club there was probably only one bad day at the office. 

At the end of the 2013-14 season he sent an under-hit drop-kick straight to Gareth Bale who sent it straight back past him for the second of four goals he conceded that day.

That pass straight to Bale was blip for a keeper who has always impressed with his feet. 

When he signed for Real Sociedad in 2006, the former Barça player Jose Mari Bakero was Real Sociedad’s coach and he recently compared the way Bravo strikes the ball to his old team-mate Ronald Koeman.

Bravo spent eight years at Real Sociedad and helped them reach the Champions League

Bravo even scored from a free-kick for Real Sociedad against Gimnastic Tarragona in 2010, as if to prove that point.

‘He is very good with his feet,’ says Bakero. ‘The way he struck the ball reminded me of Koeman – very crisp and clean. 

'And like a lot of South American keepers he is very good at coming out and winning one-on-one duels with advancing forwards. He doesn’t commit early. He stands up well and then uses his excellent reflexes,’ he told Mundo Deportivo.

Bakero decided to sign Bravo after sending two of his scouts, including his then goalkeeping coach Xabier Mancisidor (now at City), to watch him play for Colo-Colo in a tournament in Ireland.

Bravo feels indebited to Mancisidor and to Bakero who took a chance on a relative unknown from Chile. It was hard to get recognized in Europe just as it was hard making it at Colo-Colo where he joined aged 11, short for his age, and too short – as far as some were concerned – to be a keeper.

‘It was difficult because every summer I would return from holidays and there would be 30 young keepers on trial all wanting to take my place at Colo-Colo,’ he told El Periodico. 

‘It was the same when I was 12, 13 and 14. Year after year I had to keep proving I was better than them. It seemed everyone wanted to be a keeper.’

At Under 14 level patience for him to grow almost ran out. ‘We were playing Universidad de Chile. 

Bravo has earned over 100 caps for his country and won two Copa Americas

'I came for a cross and didn’t touch it because I was still too short. And some of the directors said: “he has to go; he’s too small. He’s not going to grow enough”.’

Bravo’s coach Julio Rodriguez stuck by him, taking on the directors. And when Bravo went home distraught and thinking about quitting, he persuaded him to stick with it and return to the club. 

Rodriguez, who also encouraged Bravo to use his feet playing the ball out to the full-backs instead of kicking it long, was proved right. Bravo did shoot up and made his debut for Colo-Colo aged just 16 finally becoming first-choice aged 19.

He is still known for the dogged persistence that saw him beat the odds as a young keeper.

He's now a serious, mature family man and all four of his children were out on the pitch at the Camp Nou on Sunday as he lined up in the team photo for the last time with the league trophy won last season.

Bravo saves a penalty from Vicente Iborra during the second leg of the Super Cup

He is a leader of men too, as he has proved captaining Chile at two World Cups and leading them to two straight Copa Americas – riding a wave of early criticism at the start of this summer’s tournament and then not holding back in reminding his critics of their treatment of him when he ended up holding the trophy.

But what he most transmits is that desire to make the most of a career that has put him on the world stage with club and country at time when he might have thought – as maybe Hart is thinking now – that his best seasons were behind him.

When aged 31 he signed for Barcelona he was at the 2014 World Cup. 

'My body was asking me to open a bottle of champagne but I couldn’t because we were in the middle of the tournament,’ he remembers.

Now two years on, and with eight trophies won with Barcelona behind him, it’s time to celebrate another big move.

Bravo played his final game for Barcelona during the opening day win over Real Betis