Ex-Derby County and Brentford star confirms retirement | OneFootball

A former Rams and Bees star has played his final professional match

The Frank Lampard era at Derby County saw Mel Morris back the ex-Chelsea international with many millions of pounds worth of new signings - something which would end up backfiring a few years down the line.

The Rams got just one season out of Lampard as manager due to the fact Chelsea came calling for him in the summer of 2019, but that one year saw over £10 million in transfer fees spent on new faces.

Martyn Waghorn and Jack Marriott came in to bolster County's strike-force, whilst the loan market was delved into for the likes of Harry Wilson, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori - who have all gone on to be top flight stars.

Another player that arrived that season was Florian Jozefzoon, who had already developed within the EFL for a season-and-a-half with Brentford, but was brought in to the fold at Pride Park to compete with the likes of Wilson, Duane Holmes and Tom Lawrence out wide.

And nearly eight years after the Suriname international attacker turned down Leeds United to join Derby in as £2.75 million move, Jozefzoon has made a big career announcement.

Ex-Derby County star Florian Jozefzoon announces professional retirement

As confirmed by 35-year-old Jozefzoon himself via his official Instagram page - which he only began just over a week ago - on February 26, the Ajax academy graduate has made the decision to retire from playing in his mid-30's.

Jozefzoon's last stint at a club came with Alicante-based Spanish outfit Intercity, who currently play in the fourth tier of football in their country, but he appeared just once for them before his departure in 2025.

Without doubt, Jozefzoon's best stint in football came with Brentford, who he joined in January 2017 from PSV. The winger had previously joined the Dutch giants in 2013 from RKC Waalwijk, but a serious knee injury scuppered much of his time in Eindhoven.

Joining Dean Smith's side halfway through the 2016-17 season, Jozefzoon would go on to score eight times and notch 10 assists in 62 appearances in all competitions for the Bees, before Derby went on to fend off strong interest from Leeds for his services.

Under Lampard at Derby, Jozefzoon was in and out of the starting 11 in 2018-19, but he played little part of the run in towards the back end of the campaign, and only played 17 minutes of the 2-1 play-off final defeat at Wembley to Aston Villa.

Adding just 14 Championship outings the following season to his tally, Jozefzoon would spend the 2020-21 campaign with Rotherham United on loan, before departing the EFL for good in 2021 after his County contract expired, having scored just three times and notched two assists from his 48 Rams outings.

Florian Jozefzoon didn't fulfil his potential at Derby County - knee injury may have prevented that

Having been picked up by PSV as a 22-year-old, there would have been hopes that Jozefzoon could've turned into a top Eredivisie winger at that time - an ACL injury in 2015 though may have scuppered all of that.

It stalled Jozefzoon's development and led to PSV selling the attacker a couple of years later to Brentford, but he evidently showed enough at Griffin Park to see Derby splash the cash on him - and it was also somewhat of an endorsement that Leeds wanted him under the management of Marcelo Bielsa.

Whilst it never really happened for Jozefzoon at Derby County under Frank Lampard and then Phillip Cocu, there was plenty of ability in the feet of the Surinamian, and he'll likely retire a contented man about his career, having passed through several countries such as the Netherlands, England, France and Türkiye.