These players retired in 2022: Tévez, Ribéry, Wilshere & Co. looking for new tasks

World champions, Champions League winners, Olympic medallists and record-breaking transfers – also in 2022, a number of highly decorated players announced the end of their careers. Some saw the right time to call it quits, others were slowed down by injuries or illnesses, and some received an offer for a seamless transition into coaching. Transfermarkt shows you the most notable footballers who said goodbye to their active careers this year.

“I’ve no choice but to stop playing,” long-time Bayern Munich star Franck Ribéry said in October. At 39, the winger was still active at Italian first division club US Salernitana, but due to injury, it was the end for the 2013 European Player of the Year almost a year before he was supposed to retire. “Despite the efforts I’ve made in the last three months, the pain in my knee has only gotten worse.”

Ribéry is only one of the many high-profile footballers to hang up his football boots in 2022. The highest market value of all these players was held by Gonzalo Higuaín at €75 million. The Argentinean striker last played for Inter Miami. However, the 35-year-old, who was the most expensive player in Serie A history before Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus and accumulated a total of €159m in transfer fees over his career, no longer wants anything to do with football. This business is not the world in which he wants to continue to live. “It destroys you,” Higuaín said.

Retired in 2022: Tévez, Wilshere and Co. want to become coaches

On the other hand, fellow Argentine Carlos Tévez, who spent around five months in charge Rosario Central after his career came to an end, is among those who aspire to a similarly successful coaching career as they enjoyed as a player. Jack Wilshere, who quit quite early at age 30 after many injuries, is now coach of Arsenal’s U-18 side, while Ribéry joined the coaching staff at Salernitana.