Every year, the world of football loses some of its gems. Some fantastic careers come to an end, and it is only fair that those careers are celebrated as they should be. 2016 was no different as some illustrious names called time on their glorious careers.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lionel Messi (at least temporarily) called time on their careers for their respective national teams, but they are still active in club football. Messi has shown no sign of slowing down and is even back playing or Argentina.
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But there were a few others who brought the curtains down on their careers and we will take a look at five such footballers who made the game richer.
#1 Steven Gerrard
One of Liverpool’s greatest ever players, Gerrard quit football after his Los Angeles Galaxy lost to the Colorado Rapids in the semi-final of the MLS playoff. He returned to Liverpool and is expected to take up a coaching role within the club’s academy very soon.
Gerrard made 710 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 186 goals in his stint with the club, from 1998 to 2015. But what Gerrard did for Liverpool cannot be quantified by any statistics, any numbers. He was, well and truly, ‘ Mr. Liverpool’.
The number of times when Gerrard has single-handedly taken games by the scruff of the neck and dragged Liverpool back into those contests is the stuff of legends. There aren’t too many people who have an FA Cup final named after them; Steven Gerrard is one of them.
In 2006, he struck two beauties to help Liverpool draw level with West Ham – the second one, an absolute stunner for 35 yards out, as the game just headed into extra time.
But arguably the best moment of Gerrard’s Liverpool career happened a year before that. In Istanbul in 2005, in a Champions League final, Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time against AC Milan. Gerrard scored nine minutes after the restart and won the penalty for Xabi Alonso to sore the equaliser.
The sight of Gerrard being a brilliant emergency right-back throughout the extra-time period will remain with Liverpool fans for a very long time.
Most things Steven Gerrard did on the pitch will remain with Liverpool fans for a very long time. After all, he was one of them, one of their own. Only, he was also the greatest footballer the club has ever had.
#2 Nemanja Vidic
Nemanja Vidic announced his retirement in late January after his contract with Inter Milan was terminated. The Serb had an unhappy spell in Italy but it does not take away from what was a stunning career
Vidic won five Premier League titles with Manchester United, in addition to winning the Champions League in 2007. Vidic also helped United make two other Champions League finals, that they eventually lost to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side.
It was a wonderful partnership that Vidic had built with Rio Ferdinand that gave Sir Alex Ferguson stability in the back four. It also helped that Vidic and Ferdinand communicated clearly with whoever the goalkeeper was – even ensuring that the young goalkeepers came into the squad and fit into the team without a hiccup – the likes of Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak despite their own uncertain form did keep a fair few clean sheets.
If there is one regret that Vidic will have, it will be his performances against United’s arch-rivals Liverpool. He got sent off four times in fixtures between the two clubs, including three consecutive times in 2008 and 2009.
But he will hold his head up high and be proud of the fact that he was part of the United squad that went past Liverpool’s number of league titles. Eventually, that is all that matters in football – the number of trophies you help your team win, irrespective of the blips that happen through the course of trying to achieve it.
#3 Antonio Di Natale
Di Natale was terrific in his 12 years at the Stadio Friuli. He made 385 appearances for Udinese, in which he scored 191 goals which made him the 7th top scorer of all time in the Serie A.
At the end of the last season, Di Natale had announced that he would leave Udinese but would continue playing. But he hasn’t played at all this season, and it would be safe to assume that his glittering playing career is over.
The legacy of Di Natale will lie in the fact that he never left Udinese despite the team barely ever challenged for any top honours nor ever really cementing a place in European competitions.
But despite that, Di Natale chose to stay and kept inspiring the team when it looked like Udinese would not survive in the Serie A that year. For Antonio Di Natale, he played the game for the love of the sport and the love for Udinese – not quite the love for trophies.
#4 Luca Toni
A journeyman footballer, Luca Toni was as potent a striker as Italy have had in recent times. He played for eight different Serie A clubs and in between, had a spell at Bayern Munich and a shorter spell in the United Arab Emirates.
But Toni’s finest hour was in the 2006 World Cup. In the quarter-final against Ukraine, he scored a brace as the Azzurri ran out 3-0 winners in that game and well on their way to glory.
But his move to Bayern in 2007 didn’t work out the way he would have liked it to, and soon he found himself alienated playing for the German giants’ reserve side before a move to Al Nasr in the UAE.
But in 2012, he joined Fiorentina, where he revived his career. In 2014, he moved to Hellas Verona and scored 22 goals in Serie A in his first season, making him the oldest Golden Boot winner in Italian history.
But last season was a disaster as Hellas were relegated, Toni scored only five goals and had a bust-up with his manager. But Toni can be satisfied looking back at his career. He was the quintessential no. 9 and played his role to perfection in most teams that he played for.
#5 Daniel Agger
The big Dane could have achieved so much more if his body had co-operated with him. At his peak, Agger was a joy to watch and defending seemed to come naturally to him.
He joined Liverpool in January 2006, but by the end of the season, he had only played four games. Soon, he was competing for two spots with three others – Martin Skrtel, Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher.
Agger went face-to-face with Roy Hodgson as Liverpool were in the ruts and the Dane didn’t agree with the methods of Hodgson.
In the 2013/14 season, every clean sheet that Liverpool kept was with Agger in the starting eleven. Considering that, it was inexplicable that Brendan Rodgers let him go at the beginning of the following season.
He endeared himself to the Liverpool fans and he was considered as one of their own. The love was reciprocated from both ends as Agger got his knuckles tattooed with the letters “YNWA” to honour the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” which has become the club’s anthem over the years.
If not for injuries, Daniel Agger could have scaled some unimaginable heights but those injuries plagued him throughout his career and eventually forced him to retire at the rather young age of 31.
