Per Mertesacker announces retirement from international football

Per Mertesacker in action for the German national team in 2013.

Germany’s World Cup winning defender Per Mertesacker announced his retirement from international today at the age of 29.

The decision comes a full 36 days after Mertesacker marshalled the German defence to a World Cup victory in Brazil this summer. The Arsenal defender’s announcement comes hot on the heels of similar decisions by two other stalwarts of the game i.e. Didier Drogba and Franck Ribery.

With the announcement, Mertesacker brings down the curtains on an international career that spanned nearly a decade. In these 10 years, Mertesacker was capped by the national team on 104 ocassions, scoring 4 goals.

The Hannover youth product Mertesacker was given his international bow in October, 2004 by the then German manager, Jurgen Klinsmann against Iran at the tender age of 20.

He has never looked back since; going on to score his first international goal in a group stage match of the 2005 Confederations Cup against Australia.

Mertesacker has been great servant to his nation and the ever true constant in the side in the last decade. He has partnered the likes of Robert Huth, Christoph Metzelder, Heiko Westermann and the later, Matt Hummels at the centre of the German defence.

This year has also seen fellow German international Phillip Lahm and Miroslav Klose bid adieu to the international game.