The great French centre-back Raphael Varane announced on Wednesday that he will retire from professional football at the age of 31, after picking up yet another issue in an injury-ridden career.
Varane won the FA Cup in his final game as a Manchester United player in May, before leaving the English giants after a mixed three seasons with the club.
The Frenchman has joined an unfortunate but illustrious list of players forced to retire early through injury.
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Nine football players who were forced to retire early due to injury
Raphael Varane
We start with the man of the hour, Raphael Varane.
A World Cup winner in 2018, Varane's career has rightly been celebrated on Wednesday, though the greatest shame is that it is perhaps no surprise he has been forced to retire after persistent injury issues throughout his career.
He won four Champions League crowns during his time with Real Madrid, before winning the EFL and FA Cups during a three-year stint at Manchester United - much of which he spent sidelined.
Having joined Como during the summer, Varane picked up a serious knee injury in his first 20 minutes playing for the club - an injury which has ultimately seen him call time on his playing career at the age of just 31. He will remain with the Italian club in a coaching capacity.
Marco van Basten
⚽️ Best EURO final goal?
🇳🇱 Happy birthday, Marco Van Basten 🎈#HBD | @OnsOranje | @MarcoVanBasten pic.twitter.com/qoiK17YqGT— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) October 31, 2020
Scorer of undoubtedly the most iconic goal in European Championships history, Marco van Basten was truly one of the great strikers of his generation. What may surprise some, however, is how brief the Dutchman's career at the top ultimately was.
Van Basten burst onto the scene with Ajax in the early 1980s, playing a pivotal role in the Netherlands' to-date only major trophy win at EURO '88. He had moved to AC Milan by the time of that tournament, and won the Ballon d'Or in his second season at the club. Back-to-back European Cup triumphs were to follow, before he was injured in the 1993 Champions League final defeat to Marseille.
Aged just 28 at the time he picked up the ankle injury (one of several during his career), van Basten would never recover and, after two years on the sidelines, called time on his career tragically early two years later. Just 30 years old at the time of his retirement, the end of van Basten's career was a truly sad footnote.
Sergio Aguero
This ICONIC moment 😲
Sergio Aguero’s title-winning goal against QPR is ELEVEN years old today 🐐🍿 pic.twitter.com/6m3ZjamToT— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 13, 2023
Scorer of a goal just as iconic in Premier League lore as van Basten's in the EURO '88 final, Sergio Aguero is best remembered for his immense decade of service in a Manchester City shirt.
The Argentinean striker arrived in the summer of 2011, and his 184 Premier League goals see him stand as the highest-scoring non-Englishman in the competition's history. He departed for Barcelona in 2021 but, after playing only five times for La Blaugrana, he was unexpectedly and suddenly forced to retire due to a condition known as cardiac arrhythmia. Aguero was 33 when he retired, though the sudden nature of his exit sees him on this list.
Emmanuel Petit
Counter-attacking brilliance! 🇫🇷🤌
Petit put the icing on the cake for @FrenchTeam! 🍰#FIFAWorldCup | #HBD pic.twitter.com/GnJ0UCBber— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) September 22, 2023
Emmanuel Petit shares something in common with all of the men ahead of him in this list. Like Aguero, the Frenchman is a Premier League champion, winning with Arsenal in 1998. Like van Basten, he scored a goal in a major tournament final, scoring France's third goal in their victory on home soil in the 1998 FIFA World Cup final.
Rather unfortunately, Petit also has something in common with his compatriot Rapha Varane. He enjoyed sporadic appearances for Barcelona and Chelsea after leaving the Gunners in 2000, before retiring at 33 with a knee injury, similar to Varane.
Jack Wilshere
Two for Ozil
One for Ramsey
And *that* Wilshere goal 👏#OnThisDay in 2013 @Arsenal pic.twitter.com/NvH2Nv9I2Q— Premier League (@premierleague) October 19, 2018
Another Arsenal hero here and, though Jack Wilshere's retirement was not explicitly due to injury, one could read between the lines when the Englishman announced he would be stepping away from football in 2022.
Wilshere had struggled with injuries throughout his career and, between joining West Ham in 2018 and announcing his retirement in 2022, he made just 50 appearances in four years across stints with the Hammers, Bournemouth, and Danish side AGF.
When he retired in July 2022, Wilshere was only 30 and explained his choice by saying:
In truth it has been difficult to accept that my career has been slipping away in recent times due to reasons outside of my control whilst feeling that I have still had so much to give.
Having played at the very highest level I have always held such ambitions within the game and if I am truthful I did not envisage being in this position at times.
However, having had time to reflect and talk with those closest with me I know that now is the right time and despite the difficult moments I look back on my career with great pride at what I have achieved.
Ledley King
One of the most talented English centre-backs of his generation, there is a regrettable reason that Ledley King may not be as well known to the new generation of football fans as his peers Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.
The Tottenham Hotspur legend was a titan at the back for Spurs around the turn of the century and for some time also held the record for the quickest Premier League goal of all-time. However, as his career progressed, King was more regularly seen on the sidelines than on the pitch, and there was a sad resignation about his retirement in 2012 at just 31 years of age. Chronic knee problems had defined the final years of King's career, though he is remembered by those who watched him as a truly classy and effective centre-back.
Richie Sadlier
12 November 2021; RTÉ analyst Richie Sadlier before the UEFA European U21 Championship qualifying group A match between Republic of Ireland and Italy at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
One of our Irish one-cap wonders, Richie Sadlier's career was cut short at an extremely young age, with the Dubliner forced to retire at just 24 after picking up a serious hip injury. He had an impressive strike rate during his eight years at Millwall and had made his debut for Ireland the year before being forced to retire.
Sadlier has since established himself as one of Ireland's best and most respected football pundits.
Alf-Inge Haaland
Contrary to public belief, Alf-Inge Haaland's early retirement was not caused by Roy Keane's infamous deliberate lunge on the Manchester City midfielder in 2001. In fact, Haaland had been suffering from serious issues in his left knee for months leading up to the incident and played several games in the weeks, months and years thereafter.
He would ultimately step away at the end of the 2002-03 season, having failed to make a single appearance over the course of the campaign. He would come out of retirement for sporadic appearances in his native Norway over the years that followed but, for all intents and purposes, his career ended in 2002 when he was just 29.
Haaland has stated himself that Keane did not end his career.
Mick McCarthy
MICK MCCARTHY SALUTES HIS SUPPORTERS AFTER HIS TESTIMONIAL MATCH AGAINST CELTIC AT LANSDOWNE ROAD. Soccer. PIC: BRENDAN MORAN / SPORTSFILE.
Another man who infamously feuded with Roy Keane, though Mick McCarthy's retirement from playing was somewhat more innocuous than Alf-Inge Haaland's.
McCarthy struggled with injury issues in the years following his captaincy of Ireland at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, making just 32 appearances over the following two seasons with Millwall. The Irishman stepped away from playing at just 33.
