‘The club of dreams’ – Kjaer expresses love for Milan after officially announcing retirement | OneFootball

‘The club of dreams’ – Kjaer expresses love for Milan after officially announcing retirement | OneFootball

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·13 January 2025

‘The club of dreams’ – Kjaer expresses love for Milan after officially announcing retirement

Article image:‘The club of dreams’ – Kjaer expresses love for Milan after officially announcing retirement

Simon Kjaer has made the decision to hang up his boots at the age of 35, and declared it a dream ending to have played his last game for AC Milan.

Kjaer ended up playing over 600 games in an illustrious career which saw him turn out for Palermo, Roma, Atalanta, Milan, Wolfsburg, Lille and Sevilla. He made 132 appearances for the Danish national team too, captaining them in major tournaments.


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After weeks of speculation about whether or not he would pen a new deal, the agent of Kjaer – Mikkel Beck – confirmed before the end of last season that the defender would leave Milan at the end of the season once his contract expired.

He gave an emotional speech on the field at San Siro to bid farewell, and then it was a case of where he might go next with various options mentioned, such as a possible return to his home land of Denmark.

The announcement has now arrived that Kjaer has decided to officially retire from football having been without a club since leaving Milan in the summer, and he gave an interview to TV2 Sport in Denmark to confirm it.

“It’s not a decision I made after the summer, I had been thinking about it since before the European Championship. In the autumn of 2023, I can see that my time at Milan could be coming to an end and I asked myself what I was going to do then,” he said (via BeSoccer).

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“From here there were many components that influenced the future. The children, the family, the national team and Milan, the club of dreams. There were many things that meant that after the European Championship it ended like this.

“I waited for something to arrive, but I had to decide first for my family and then for the sporting aspect. I don’t regret anything. I don’t miss anything in this sense.

“I had the end of my time at Milan in mind. I knew very well that it was going to be very complicated to find something else and the process, in my mind, could not have had a better outcome. I had my farewell at the San Siro. There, I knew it was my end.

“I have had no need to inform anyone but myself. Looking back, easily, I could have made a much more mediatic farewell and signed for another big club after Milan, but I have no need. That’s why we are also sitting here in January: because, for me, it was not important to have a big farewell.”

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