Spaniard Santi Cazorla announces retirement at age 41

Former Arsenal and Spanish national team midfielder Santi Cazorla announced this Thursday (2) his retirement from football, aged 41.

"I never stopped trying. And, in the end, I managed to come back. Not to close a chapter, but to feel everything again, to remember why I started", wrote the Spaniard in a post on the social network X.

"And now, when the lights go out, when the cleats are hung up and the noise gives way to silence, it all makes sense. Because the end didn't happen anywhere; it happened at home."

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- Santi Cazorla (@19SCazorla) July 2, 2026

Cazorla ends a 23-year career after playing his last season for Real Oviedo, the club where he began his football career. In 2024, he helped the team gain access to LaLiga, ending a 24-year drought outside the Spanish football elite.

For the Spanish national team, the midfielder played 81 matches and was part of the champion squads of the 2008 and 2012 Euro Cups. He, however, was left out of the 2010 World Cup title campaign due to an injury.

At Arsenal, Cazorla played for six seasons between 2012 and 2018. Signed from Málaga, he played 180 matches, scored 29 goals and was an important player in consecutive FA Cup wins in 2014 and 2015.

A sequence of serious injuries, however, interrupted his time at the London club and culminated in his departure in 2018.

Without Germany, Brazil remains at the top of the list of World Cup champions

Source: CNN