Ex-Man City and Celtic star Joe Hart lands surprise EFL job | OneFootball

Hart emerged on Tuesday night at an EFL game for a temporary coaching gig

For a number of years, Joe Hart was one of the top goalkeepers not just in the Premier League, but in the world of football - yet he hasn't really taken his talents and put them to coaching.

A Premier League winner with Man City, Hart bagged 75 caps for England in his heyday, before going on to end his career at Celtic, and in recent years he's been quite prominent on television screens as a pundit for many major stations.

What Hart hasn't really done though is gone down the coaching route of his post-playing career, which is perhaps surprising given how good he was as a goalkeeper - whether it was management or a goalkeeping coach, the 38-year-old had stayed away from it.

That was however until February 24, when Hart made a surprise appearance at a League Two game as a stand-in goalkeeper coach - and the decision reaped its rewards.

Joe Hart makes surprise Shrewsbury Town coaching move

Hart is Shrewsbury born and bred, having come up through the youth ranks of hometown club Shrewsbury Town, playing first-team football for them before moving on to Man City in 2006.

But to the surprise of many, it emerged just over an hour before kick-off for their League Two clash with Salford City on Tuesday that Hart was standing in as the club's goalkeeping coach for the night at the Peninsula Stadium,

Hart's appearance on the coaching staff of Salop clearly gave everyone involved a boost, as on the night in Greater Manchester, Gavin Cowan's side came from 1-0 down to win 2-1, which is the club's fifth victory in succession and in-turn has seen them climb from the bottom of the League Two table up to 17th in the matter of a few weeks.

It has been a remarkable turnaround under Cowan since he was appointed from Brackley Town, and the 44-year-old may have had a big part to play in getting Hart in for the Salford clash, having been a team-mate of the ex-England international as a Shrewsbury player between 2005 and 2006.

Added to that, assistant manager David Edwards - a former Premier League player like Hart having turned out 61 times for Wolves at the top level - was also a team-mate of Hart's back in the 2000s, and it appears that he's done the pair a favour by helping out for the night.

And Hart was in good spirits after Shrewsbury's win, fist-pumping towards the travelling away faithful after Will Boyle's second-half winner.

Joe Hart's coaching expertise could go a long way in football - Shrewsbury Town could only benefit

Because he was a top player, it was a surprise to see that Hart didn't immediately try his hand at coaching or management, but not everyone is cut out for going down that route.

The punditry side of the game seems to be going well for Hart, but presumably given the call by two former team-mates who are yet to find a permanent solution to their goalkeeping coach vacancy, he's jumped at the chance to lend a helping hand to Brentford loanee stopper Matthew Cox.

And the fact Hart was part of a winning team on the coaching staff may give him the itch to try out coaching a bit more - could he be the one to fill the vacancy, even if it's on a temporary basis? If he did, Shrewsbury can only benefit from his expertise and the attention that it would bring.