Eliaquim Mangala announces retirement at 35, calling time after storied career | OneFootball

Eliaquim Mangala has retired from professional football at 35, announcing the decision in a video posted on Friday. According to L'Équipe, he said it simply felt like the right time to stop.

The France defender, capped eight times, reflected that he has lived and achieved more than he imagined as a child.

Mangala came through at Standard Liège from 2008 to 2011, moved to Porto from 2011 to 2014, then joined Manchester City from 2014 to 2019. He said injuries slowed him in the years that followed.

He later featured for Valencia, Everton, Saint-Étienne and Estoril, then most recently for Oriente Petrolero in Bolivia, where he had been since January. For a time he carried the tag of the world's most expensive defender after a €53.8m move from Porto to City, a label he said never interested him and one he barely registered.

Looking back, he stressed that, whatever the injuries, he won titles, travelled widely, learned languages and met many people. He described it as a mix of beautiful experiences and said it was magnificent.

Source: L'Équipe