OFFICIAL: Thuram retires

Former Barcelona player Lilian Thuram (36), whose contract with Barcelona expired at the end of June, has today announced at a press conference that he retires as football player although his heart condition isn't as bad as initially thought:

"My heart is somewhat big and muscled but I don't have the genetical disease that could cause a heart failure at any moment. I will have to undergo addititonal tests to have more certainty. I am very happy to know that I'm not sick. It makes things easier. I will be able to play with my children and to play a game of football with my friends.

I nevertheless understood from talks with my mother that it was time to stop as a professional player. I would have liked to sign for Paris Saint-Germain and become the Maldini of the club, but I also have to take into account other things like my family. They want me to stop playing and it wouldn't be wise to make the ones I love suffer somehow.

I have some kind of sadness over me and things have been complicated over the last days. Some days, I said to myself that I had to quit. Other days, that I had to continue. But this is a final decision and I won't come back on it, otherwise I wouldn't be here talking to you today. It's very hard, I didn't expect to end my career like this, I try to take it as good as I can."

pep's opinion:
his time at Barcelona was not good (although it wasn't really his fault, the technical people should have known that his way of playing was totally unsuited for the attacking style of barcelona) but what a great personality is leaving the football fields. he truly was more than a football player and it seems probable that he will start somewhere a new career that could surpass his football career. thanks and all the best to him.

Read the complete Lilian Thuram retirement story from the first rumours linking him with other clubs to the official confirmation of his retirement