Famous soccer player and former Germany captain Michael Ballack formally announced his retirement from football on Tuesday.
"At the age of 36 years, I can look back on a long and wonderful time in professional football. As a child I would never have even been able to dream of such a career," Ballack said Tuesday.
Ballack started his football career in 1995 at Chemnitz and has played for clubs like Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen (twice), Bayern Munich and Chelsea, reports Xinhua.
His entire career statistics includes 145 goals in 585 official matches.
"It was a privilege to work with world class coaches and fantastic players. Of course I am going to miss to play in front of 80,000 spectators or scoring goals."
Though Ballack's contract at Bayer Leverkusen was not extended in the summer, he had some offers from around the world.
"The last few month without football have shown me that the time has come to stop. I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life. I want to thank my family and all the great people who supported me."
Ballack had won four Bundesliga title, three German Cups, one Premier League title and three FA Cups.
-With inputs from IANS
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