Andrea Pirlo has announced he will retire from professional football when his contract at New York City FC expires in December.
"You realise that the time has come," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "Every day you have physical problems, you cannot train as you want because you always have some problem. At my age, that's enough. It's not that you can go on forever until the age of 50. I'll do something else. At 38, it's just right to give young players room. I'm not angry. Instead, I will give a hand to team-mates and to the coach."
Pirlo won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, where he was man of the match in three of their matches including the memorable final against France. You can see a compilation of his brilliance and best moments right here: