Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero announced his immediate retirement on Wednesday for health reasons.
The 33-year-old Argentine striker underwent heart tests after leaving the pitch with his chest during Barcelona’s match against Alaves in the Spanish league on 30 October.
His condition has since been evaluated, and a tearful Aguero said at a press conference at the Camp Nou that he had decided to stop playing.
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“I always knew I would give it my all to get a chance to play again,” Aguero said.
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“But after the last exams, I was advised by my doctors to stop playing professional football. Their words were enough to make a choice. Retiring under these circumstances is difficult, but life comes first – I knew that. from the beginning.
“One of the many things that football has taught me is that you can turn defeat into victory. This is not going to be any different. It’s probably painful – but it’s not a tragedy. A tragedy would have been something completely different.
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“My thoughts are not at the time I could have played on, they are on the wonderful 18 years I got to play.”
Aguero is one of the world’s most famous players when he first came to Barcelona in the low season after completing a 10-year stay at Manchester City, where he became a major player in the English game.
The little striker’s professional career began way back in 2003 when he made his debut as a 15-year-old for Argentine Independiente.
After 23 goals in 56 appearances, Aguero was signed by Atletico Madrid for a then club record fee of € 20 million in 2006. Aguero would spend five seasons with the club and score 101 goals in 234 matches.
But he really flourished after arriving at Manchester City in 2011 for a reported fee of £ 35 million, one which he ended up repaying in savings.
His first match for the club, where he scored a ball and scored another goal after coming on as a substitute against Swansea City, was praised as one of the best debuts in English Premier League history.
Aguero’s most iconic moment came at the end of his debut season for the club, when he fired City for his first Premier League title in 44 years with a battle-winning goal in the break on the final day of the season.
After scoring 23 EPL goals in his debut season, Aguero wanted to leave City as the leading international goal scorer of all time, having scored 184 times in 275 Premier League matches and surpassed French icon Thierry Henry.
He is the fourth ever on the EPL goal scorer list behind Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Andy Cole.
Aguero retires as five-time English Premier League champion and six-time EFL Cup winner.
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