Samir Nasri retires from professional football at 34 | OneFootball

Former Arsenal and Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri has announced his retirement from professional football.

LONDON, ENGLAND: Samir Nasri of Arsenal looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on August 20, 2011, in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Speaking to Le Journal du Dimanche (via GFFN) this week, Samir Nasri announced his retirement from professional football. He’ll instead continue his work as a pundit, which he currently does with French outlet Canal+.

The 34-year-old explained that after a Premier League return with West Ham that was marred by injuries, and a spell in Belgium disrupted by the pandemic, he no longer has any intention to return to French football and no new challenge has worked for him.

To blame Nasri’s struggles at Anderlecht solely on the pandemic is somewhat disingenuous, as multiple further injury problems had sidelined him many months before Covid-19 was an issue.

Reports then suggested Anderlecht were planning to sack Nasri over his refusal to contact the club about his whereabouts during the coronavirus lockdown.

Other reports argued he ‘hardly brought any added value’ on the pitch, and they didn’t have any plans to exercise the option to extend his expiring contract anyway. So the midfielder’s failure to make an impact in Belgium was largely on him.

That all followed his ban from football. In February 2018, Nasri was given a six-month ban by UEFA for receiving an intravenous drip of 500 millilitres of water containing nutrients.

By August, the ban had been increased by an extra 12 months and backdated to 1st July 2017. He joined West Ham on his return to the game, but never really rediscovered his old self.

Earlier in his career, Nasri made 125 appearances for Arsenal and scored 27 goals before jumping ship for Manchester City.