German and Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, on Tuesday, announced that he will be retiring from all forms of football at the end of European Championship 2024.
The 34-year-old took to social media to announce his decision to hang his boots, suggesting that the UEFA Champions League final would be his final club game of his career.
“July 17th, 2014 - the day of my presentation at Real Madrid, the day that changed my life. My life as a footballer - but especially as a person. It was the start of a new chapter at the biggest club in the world. After 10 years, this chapter comes to an end,” Kroos wrote on Instagram.
Kroos started his senior club career in Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in 2007 and moved to Real Madrid after seven years.
At the Spanish capital, the German became one of the club’s legends in the modern era, winning 22 titles in 463 games, which include four Champions League titles, as many UEFA Super Cups and Spanish Super Cups, five Club World Cups, four European Super Cups, four La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey.
“... this decision means that my career as an active footballer will end this summer after the Euro championship. As I have always said: Real Madrid is and will be my last club,” he added.
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“I am happy and proud, that in my mind I found the right timing for my decision and that I could choose it by my own. My ambition was always to finish my career at the peak of my performance level. From now on there is only one leading thought: a por la 15!!! HALA MADRID Y NADA MAS!”
Real Madrid also confirmed the decision, expressing gratitude and affection to the midfielder for his services. “Toni Kroos is one of the great players in the history of Real Madrid and that this club is and will always be his home,” the club’s president Sergio Perez said in a statement.
FIFA World Cup winner
Kroos represented Germany in the three FIFA World Cups and helped it win the tournament in 2014, when it beating Argentina 1-0 in the final. With three assists, he was the key assist-provider for his team in the 2014 edition.
In the 2018 World Cup, he scored a brilliant goal against Sweden to give Germans fresh hope to qualify for the knockouts - a campaign which eventually ended with a loss to South Korea.
In 2021, after Germany’s elimination from the European Championship, Kroos had announced retirement from international football but reverted his decision eventually, with Julian Nagelsmann interested to include him in his plans. On May 16, he was named in Germany’s EURO 2024 squad.
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