Athletic Bilbao 39-year-old Spanish striker Aritz Aduriz has announced his retirement from professional football. Aritz Aduriz is the oldest player to have ever scored for Spain, he was already set to play in an all-Basque Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad in April but the game was placed on hold due to coronavirus pandemic.
Following the suspension of the La Liga due to the global pandemic coronavirus the 39-year-old is now set to have a hip replacement. According to Aritz Aduriz he said on his Twitter handle that: “Many times, I have said that football will leave you before you leave it.”
“Yesterday, the doctors told me to go see the surgeon, sooner rather than later, to get a prosthetic to replace my hip and try to go about my everyday life, as normally as possible. Unfortunately, my body has said ‘enough’. “I can’t help my team-mates the way I would like to, nor the way they deserve. That is the life of a professional athlete. Simple,” he concluded.
Aritz Aduriz made 296 appearances for Athletic Bilbao and scored 141 goals. He also played for Valencia and Mallorca. During his playing time, he made 13 caps for Spain, and became the country’s oldest goal-scorer in 2016, aged 35 years and 275 days.
