Spain international and Atletico Bilbao striker Aitz Aduriz has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 39.
Aduriz, whose youthful career was spent at Antiguoko, in a statement said he couldn’t help his teammates as he would have wanted due to a hip injury and it was time to call it quits.
“The time has come. 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 to try and go about my everyday life, as normally as possible. Unfortunately, my body has said ‘enough’.
“I can’t help my teammates the way I would like to, nor the way they deserve. That is the life of a professional athlete. Simple. Very simple,” part of his statement said.
Is first spell with Athletic as a youngster saw him mostly confined to the reserves and out on loan to Burgos in the third tier.
He was to leave the club for Real Valladolid in 2004 before returning to San Mames in 2006 with the striker notching 285 goals in 780 appearances for the club.
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