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The\nSpanish attacker will hang up his boots at the end of the season in Japan
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\nFormer\nBarcelona star David Villa has confirmed his plans to retire once the current\nJ-League season finishes.
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\nThe\n37-year-old has been playing for Japanese side Vissel Kobe alongside former\nBarcelona star Andres Iniesta, this year with three league matches remaining\nbefore an Emperor’s Cup semi-final in late December.
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\nAt a press\nconference on Wednesday, Villa revealed he will be hanging up his boots,\ndeclaring he wanted to finish his career on his own terms.
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\n\u201cI\u2019ve been\nthinking about this for a long time,” Villa said. “This is the result\nof discussions I had with my family and people around me.
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\n“I\nwanted to retire from football, not be forced to retire from football.”
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\nThe 2010\nWorld Cup winner is determined to end his career with one final piece of\nsilverware, taking to social media to clarify he intends to play on in the\nEmperor’s Cup.
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\n“It\nis my objective to put the cherry on top by winning the Emperor\u2019s Cup with\nVissel Kobe on January 1,” he said on Twitter.
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\n“From\nthen on, I will continue to enjoy football through all the projects that we\u2019re\ncurrently developing with DV7 group. Thank you for all the love.”
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\nVilla’s\ncareer has spanned 19 years and began in Spain with Sporting Gijon before\nsubsequent moves to Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
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\nAfter\nspending most of his club career in his homeland, Villa then ventured to MLS\nside New York City in 2015, where he spent four seasons before joining Kobe\nearlier this year.
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\nThe\nattacker has scored 12 times and contributed two assists across 26 appearances\nthis campaign, with the club currently 10th in the J-League.
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\nAcross his\nclub career, Villa claimed three La Liga titles, three Copa del Reys and\nwon the Champions League in 2011 with Barcelona.
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\nInternationally,\nthe Spaniard represented his country 98 times winning Euro 2008 before also\nlifting the World Cup two years later.
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\nVilla recently secured USL\nfranchise rights for New York-based Queensboro FC and now looks set to put\nhis full focus into the club.
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\n\u201cI lived\nand played in New York for four years. I know what a special place Queens is,\u201d\nVilla said. \u201cI love the cultures, the food, the people and their passion for\nlife and, of course, soccer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Spanish attacker will hang up his boots at the end of the season in Japan Former Barcelona star David Villa has confirmed his plans to retire once the current J-League season finishes. The 37-year-old has been playing for Japanese side Vissel Kobe alongside former Barcelona star Andres Iniesta, this year with three league matches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n