Former Manchester City, England goalkeeper Joe Hart to retire at end of season

By Can Erozden

Former Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart will retire from football at the end of this season, he said on Thursday.

"As of June, I'm going to stop playing professional football," Hart, who has been playing for Scotland's Celtic since 2021, said in a video on Instagram.

"This is something that I've thought about for a while. There's no right or wrong time but the way this club works that I'm playing at the moment there's so much on it.

"There's so much heart and soul poured into what we're doing as a football club, with the grand scheme of the club, the support base, and the conversations that go on around it," the 36-year-old said.

"There's obviously a conversation around the goalkeeping position for next season so I just think it was important with the blessing of the club.

"I've had conversations with the club, with (Celtic manager) Brendan (Rodgers), with Stevie Woods. That if we get the message out, it leaves one less thing that people need to speculate over," he added.

Hart, who will turn 37 in April, is one of the well-known goalkeepers in Europe as he amassed 75 caps for England.

The experienced goalkeeper spent most of his time at Manchester City to win the English Premier League title twice, in 2012 and 2014.

Hart also played for the Premier League's West Ham United, Burnley, and Tottenham Hotspur.

He joined Italy's Torino in 2016 for a temporary move, which was Hart's first overseas experience.

In 2021, Hart left the London club Tottenham Hotspur for Glasgow's Celtic, where he won back-to-back Scottish Premiership titles in 2022 and 2023.

Hart's contract with Celtic will expire on May 31.