Sergio Busquets announces his retirement
The former Barcelona player, who currently plays for Inter Miami, will leave football when the season ends.
Sergio Busquets will retire from football at the end of the current Major League Soccer season, his current club, Inter Miami, has announced. The 37-year-old former Barça player said in a video posted on social media that the following months "will be the last on the pitch," and that he is retiring "very happy, proud, and above all grateful."
The former Barça midfielder joined Inter Miami in 2023, where he reunited with former teammates Leo Messi, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suárez. Busquets made his debut in 2008 with the Blaugrana, the team of his life, with Josep Guardiola as coach. He was a key player in the best Barça in history alongside Messi, Xavi Hernández, and Andrés Iniesta. His trophy cabinet includes three European Cups, nine La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, three Club World Cups, and three European Super Cups. He played 143 matches for the Spanish national team, including the 2010 World Cup triumph in South Africa and the European Championship two years later in Poland and Ukraine.
"I feel like the time has come to say goodbye to my career as a professional footballer. It's been almost 20 years enjoying this incredible story that I always dreamed of," says the former Barça player. "Thanks to Fútbol Club Barcelona, the club of my life, here I fulfilled the dreams I had as a child, wore the shirt I loved in hundreds of games, celebrated many titles and experienced unique moments at the Camp Nou that I will never forget." Busquets played 15 seasons in the first team, even wearing the captain's armband. The Badia del Vallès native is the player with the third most official matches for Barcelona (close to 700), only behind Messi and Xavi.
After these seasons at the Camp Nou, Busquets embarked on the MLS adventure in 2023 with David Beckham's Inter Miami, where he has been an undisputed starter, first under Gerardo Martino and now under Javier Mascherano, both also with a Barcelona past. Inter Miami has five regular season matches left before the start of the play-off in the title. If he were to play in the MLS final, it would be on December 6. "The team now looks forward to his contribution in the final stretch of the season, in which he will conclude an extraordinary career in which he has won numerous titles and accolades, and in which he has earned a place among the best midfielders in the history of football," Inter said in a statement.
