Netherlands winger Arjen Robben has confirmed his retirement from football after leaving Bayern Munich. The 35-year-old left the Bavarians at the end of last season and he has now decided to hang up his boots after enjoying an illustrious career.
Robben made 606 appearances for different clubs, including Chelsea, PSV Eindhoven and Real Madrid, and scored 210 goals despite struggling with long-term injuries during the latter part of his career. He won the Premier League, FA Cup, La Liga, Champions League as well as eight Bundesliga titles at Bayern.
After leaving the Allianz Arena at the end of June, Robben has now decided to move onto the next chapter of his life. “I have been thinking a lot over the past few weeks,” he told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “As everyone knows, I took the time to make an informed decision about my future after my last Bayern Munich match. And I decided to put an end to my career as a professional football player. “It is without doubt the hardest decision I have had to make in my career.
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A decision where heart and mind collided. “The love for the game and the conviction that you can still handle the whole world, as opposed to the reality that not everything runs the way you want and you are no longer the 16-year-old boy who had no idea what an injury meant. “At the moment I am fit and healthy and as a fan of many other sports I would like to keep it that way for the future. I will therefore stop definitively, but it is good that way.”
