FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich legend announces surprise retirement

A former FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich star has retired from football, as exclusively reported by transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano, citing unnamed sources.

“Thiago Alcantara has decided to retire from professional football. The former Barça, Bayern, Liverpool and Spain player has made his decision,” Romano tweeted.

“Thiago’s passion and love for the game continues as he is ready for a new chapter in football after a few months of planning,” added the Italian.

Thiago was born in Italy to Brazilian parents, his father Mazinho being a 1994 World Cup winner with the Seleçao.

After a stint at Flamengo’s academy in Rio de Janeiro, the last from 2001 to 2005, he joined the famous Barça Masia created in the latter year.

Pep Guardiola handed Thiago his first-team debut in May 2009, when he came on as a 74th-minute substitute in a La Liga clash against RCD Mallorca with the title already secured.

Making another 100 appearances over the next four seasons, a budding Thiago later revealed to BT Sport that he left Barça because he “played with a lot of legends” and therefore “had trouble playing as many minutes as I wanted”.

For a modest fee of $21.7 million (€20 million), he fled to Bayern Munich in 2013 on a four-year contract and found his feet in Bavaria where he became a club legend in addition to being a seven-time Bundesliga king.

After winning his second Champions League winners’ medal in Lisbon in the summer of 2020 and playing a key role in the 8-2 demolition of his former club Barca in the quarter-finals, Thiago took on a new challenge in England where he signed for Liverpool.

Injuries have limited him to 98 appearances for the Reds in four seasons, which, as explained, is less than what he managed in the same period before leaving the Blaugrana as a youngster.

The Premier League giants revealed in May that Thiago would be leaving at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, and now, aged 33, the former Spain international has decided to call time on a glittering career as reported by Romano and confirmed via Thiago’s staff by Brazilian journalist Josue Seixas.

Thiago can do so with his head held high, as a figure widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation.