French World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi announced his retirement from football.
The 35-year-old Matuidi won the World Cup in 2018 and made his last of his 84 appearances for Les Bleus three years ago.
Football, je t’ai tant aimé. Football, if you do, is the time to stop. J’ai reaches me rêves d’enfant, mes rêves d’homme. C’est la gorge serrée mais avec fierté que je tourne aujourd’hui cette page.
MERCI ❤️
👉🏾 https://t.co/j9S9b7QaiD pic.twitter.com/rkDwnxX9Tj— Blaise Matuidi (@MATUIDIBlaise) December 23, 2022
“Football, I loved you so much. Football, you have given me so much but it’s time to say stop,” Matuidi wrote on Twitter.
“I fulfilled my dreams as a child, as a man. I now turn the page with a lump in my throat.”
A tough ball winner with great stamina and good passing skills, the midfielder also had an eye for goal as he pushed forward. He won four French league titles with Paris Saint-Germain and three consecutive Italian titles with Juventus.
After playing two seasons in Major League Soccer at Inter Miami, he was without a club this year.
Matuidi played for Troyes and Saint-Etienne before joining PSG in 2011.
He scored 33 goals in 295 games for PSG and was twice voted the team of the season of the French league.