Hart’s desire is to retire but it’s been an impressive glove story
Players hang up their boots all the time. Hanging up the gloves, however, seems a more notable event. Goalkeepers are different, as Brian Glanville, the football journalist, once put it in the title of a celebrated children's book.
About to turn 37, it could be argued that Joe Hart’s decision seems premature. It’s not uncommon for goalkeepers to play until their 40s. Hart himself will no doubt come across one next weekend at Tynecastle when Celtic travel to face Hearts, who may or may not feature Craig Gordon, 41, in their starting XI.
But he has given thanks for the“clarity”hesayshehasbeen blessed with after announcing his decision to retire. Not immediately. Scott Bain, the long-term Celtic goalkeeping understudy, can relax. Hart still has work to do, including helping his team attack Rangers from an unaccustomed position of below their rivals in the league table.
But Hart will step aside at the end of this season - to do what, he says he doesn’t know. He will hope he can draw the line under a magnificent career with a winning Scottish Cup final appearance at Hampden Park, where he has already exorcised the memory of two more forgettable – for him at least – moments of his career.
Some quipped that Leigh Griffiths retired Hart without the keeper knowing it in 2017 when he whipped those two late free-kicks into opposite corners of Hart’s goal in a 2-2 draw between Scotland and England. Hart, of course, had the last laugh thanks to Harry Kane’s late, late equaliser.
He played only four further times for England although still made it to an impressive 75 appearances, which means he shares the title with David Seaman of second-most capped England keeper after Peter Shilton. A clean sheet against Brazil isn’t a bad way to bow out.
He made his senior entrance in April 2004, the day after he turned 17, for Shrewsbury Town in a Conference League clash against Gravesend & Northfleet. To give some context to just how long ago this was, Celtic hosted Aberdeen the next night and lost 2-1 to a last-minute winner from David Zdrilic. Henrik Larsson scored Celtic’s goal.
Hart's next stop was Manchester City, the club where he made far and away his most appearances – as many as 266 in the league for starters, 348 in total.
He will hit the 100-game league appearance mark for Celtic against Hearts if he plays in that as well as both games between now and then, against Motherwell and Dundee. He will not play in Europe again, but he has at least enjoyed Champions League football in his later years, even if he conceded five goals against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu last season.
Given the captain’s armband that night due to the absence of injured pair Callum Mcgregor and Cameron Carter-vickers, he described it as one of the greatest moments of his career regardless of the result.
“To get an opportunity to lead a club like Celtic out at the Bernabeu?” he said afterwards. “You need to remove yourself and take those moments in. It was one of the amazing things I have been able to do in my career. I will probably appreciate them all even more when I am not playing football.”
Perhaps he did not, even then, anticipate that moment would come quite so soon. As he stressed to his close friend and mental performance coach Jamie Edwards in an interviewreleased by celtic, he“feels great ”– and he looks it too. many thought he might sign another contract at Celtic or even seek a more sentimental last act.
He was approached by then Shrewsbury Town manager Sam Ricketts about a potential move back to his hometown club after his release by Burnley in 2020. Hart still felt he had another top-level move left in him. That wasn't Spurs, where he didn’t make a single league appearance. But he has been good for Celtic, where the bar hasn’t always been the highest when it comes to goalkeepers – and Celtic have been good for him.