Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
Footballer who played for Estrela da Amadora goes through family problems. Judoka leaves the competition “as he wanted”.
Two European champions abandoned professional sport. Two announcements in a few hours: Nani e Telma Monteiro.
The footballer, who was European champion for Portugal at Euro2016, announced this Sunday the end of his professional football career, at 38 yearsat a time when he represented the Star of Amadora to the I League.
“As you all know, everything has an end. At this moment, I took the initiative to make a very important decision, perhaps the most important of my professional life, to stop playing as a professional”, declared the winger, in a post on social media.
Nani reveals that he is “ready for new paths”, highlighting the academy he is building aimed at younger people.
Also Estrela, for whom he scored a goal and played 10 games, the end of the winger’s career, who he signed during the last season, and the consequent “termination of contract by mutual agreement”, remembering “an exemplary figure who always elevated, around the world , the good name of the city and the colors of the country”.
According to the , the death of your pai in November and others family problems anticipated the end of Nani’s career.
The president of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), Fernando Gomes, expressed “deep gratitude” to the player.
O Sporting elevated Nani to the status of “football legend” which will remain “forever” in the club’s history. With 141 ‘lion’ games on his chest and 31 goals scored, the winger was also known for his mortal celebration, which the Lisbon club remembers in the note, with “Lá vai o Nani”, the beginning of a chant that alludes to his goals and celebrations in the ‘green and white’ emblem.
The Sporting-educated winger was capped 112 times ‘AA’ by Portugal (24 goals), with whom he won Euro2016, and after emerging with the ‘Lions’, to which he would return two more times, the highlight of his career was the seven years at Manchester United (42 goals in 230 games), for which he was European champion in 2007/08.
He also played for Lazio, Valencia, Fenerbahçe, Orlando City or Melbourne Victory, having been included on initial Ballon d’Or lists several times.
Interestingly, the last time he took to the pitch in official games was in Alvalade, in Estrela da Amadora’s 5-1 defeat to Sporting.
Telma Monteiro leaves
The judoka Telma Monteiro announced the end of careeralso at the age of 38, after a career of more than two decades at the highest level and during which he was a bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games.
“I finish my career as I wanted, with the feeling that I gave everything I had to give, and that was how it was supposed to be. An eternal gratitude”, said the judoka in statements to BTV, adding that she thinks of everyone who “contributed” to her journey.
Telma Monteiro was European champion six times, reaching the final of a World Cup four times, although he always lost.
The club also reported that the judoka will continue linked to Benficabut from now on as “coordinator of judo at the club, to develop and inspire new generations”.
