Every year many footballers sadly retire from football for a variety of reasons
Here are some of the footballers you may have heard of that retired in 2022
Jack Wilshere
This is one of the saddest retirements on the list, many any list from any year.
He was without doubt an exceptional talent, as you can see from 2 goal of the seasons playing for Arsenal
The fact he only managed 288 appearnces in 13 seasons was testament of the impact of injuries to his career
Wilshere appeared 34 times for England. He made his debut for the senior team against Hungary at the age of 18 years and 222 days.
On 11 July 2022, four days after announcing his retirement from professional football, Wilshere was announced as the head coach of the Arsenal U18s
Jermain Defoe
An out and out goalscorer, he scored 305 goals in 763 games. Surprisingly he never broke 20 league goals in a season
He was famous for spells at West Ham, Tottenham and Sunderland
Defoe made his England debut in 2004 and made 57 appearances, scoring 20 goals in the process
On 24 March 2022 he announced his retirement from professional football
Mousa Dembele
A very cultured midfielder premier league fans will rememeber him from his time at Tottenham Hotspur where he played 210 games and notched 10 goals
He also managed a grand total of 82 caps for Belgium
His final move was to the Chinese super league but on 8 February 2022 Dembélé rejected a contract extension from Guangzhou to spend more time with his family
I didn’t realise he was 35 but then you forget he played for Germinal Beerschot, Willem II, AZ and Fulham as well
Mark Noble
Its a sad fact of modern football that you will not see many players who spend many seasons at a club and become known as one club players
Mark Noble is one of these players, 18 seasons at West ham he played 550 times and score 62 goals
One of the biggest controversies was that he never manged even 1 full England cap, in an era when many bang average players managed 1 especially in friendlies.
Carlos Tevez
A player who was noted for some controversy, none of it really being any of his doing including his signing for West Ham United and Man City from Man United
A career where he played 746 games on total and notched an impressive 308 goals
Tevez made his international debut for Argentina in 2004, earning 76 caps and scoring 13 times for the side.
He announced his retirement from professional football in June 2022. On 21 June 2022, after announcing his retirement as a player, Tevez was appointed as head coach of Argentiian side Rosario Central.
Aleksandar Kolarov
A player that you probably remember for his time at Man City and Italian teams, Roma, Lazio and Inter Milan
A left back who had a terrific free kick on him he managed 58 goals in 580 games, many cracking free kicks.
Kolarov made his debut for Serbia in 2008 and earned 94 caps
On 19 June 2022, Kolarov announced his retirement from professional football
Bruno Alves
A player that you could describe as a tough tackling, no nonsense defender
He made significant appearances at Porto, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Fenerbahce and Parma
Alves represented the country in three World Cups, three European Championships and one Confederations Cup, winning Euro 2016 and earning 96 caps in the process.
He announced his retirement in June 2022,being appointed sporting director of AEK Athens shortly after.
