💙 Sergio Agüero retires and a brilliant career ends too soon | OneFootball

So it’s official.

Sergio Agüero has made the incredibly sad and painful decision to call time on his playing career at the age of 33 due to a heart problem.

For a man who became a legend with that late goal, having to bow out of football prematurely is a particularly cruel twist of fate.

And Wednesday’s announcement puts a brutal full-stop at the end of what has been a very difficult period in Agüero’s life.

After being sidelined for much of last season due to injury, Manchester City opted to release him at the end of his contract, and his final appearance for the club literally ended in tears as they were beaten by Chelsea in the Champions League final.

His summer switch to Barcelona promised an overdue rendezvous with long-time friend Lionel Messi, only for the rug to be swept from under him when Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain.

Agüero made just five appearances for Barça totalling 165 minutes, before breathing difficulties experienced during a game against Alavés on 30 October led to him being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.

It has been a terrifying ordeal and though he will know that hanging up his boots is the safest decision for him and his family, it will take him a long time to recover from the devastation he will be feeling right now.

But wherever Agüero’s life takes him in the future, he deserves to be remembered as a boy who made history in his native Argentina when he debuted for Independiente aged just 15 years and 35 days.

He deserves to be remembered at Atlético as a player who arrived a wonderkid and left a superman, helping the Rojiblancos lift the Europa League and netting them a handsome profit before saying adiós.

He deserves to be remembered as Manchester City’s all-time leading goalscorer and one of English football’s greatest ever foreign imports, having broken the record for most Premier League goals for a single club in his final Premier League appearance.

He deserves to be remembered for that iconic goal. Agüero scored 427 goals in 786 games for club and country but he never scored a bigger one than that. I swear you’ll never see anything like it ever again.

And he deserves to be remembered for his charming, effervescent personality which made him a footballers’ footballer and a fans’ favourite.

He was one of the finest strikers of the 21st century who often played like he’d jumped out of a computer game into the real world. He was a goalkeeper’s nightmare who could find the bottom corner like a heat-seeking missile. Goalscoring came as naturally to him as blinking comes to you or I.

In his younger days his playing style was eerily reminiscent of Brazilian great Romario and later in his career, he adapted to the demands of Pep Guardiola, added pressing to his game and somehow became an even better footballer than he’d ever been.

He had plenty more to give as a player and that’s what makes his early retirement so heartbreaking, but his family needs him far more than football does, and he’s already given the game more than enough.

Above all else, Agüero deserves a healthy and happy retirement and if one day he decides to go into coaching, the younger generation will be blessed by his wisdom.

Retired but never forgotten. Gracias Sergio, it was an absolute pleasure.