adminTOKYO. — Uruguay’s most-capped player Diego Forlan, so often his country’s talisman, announced his retirement from international football yesterday. The 35-year-old striker played 112 games for Uruguay and scored 36 goals, representing the South Americans at three World Cups and helping them lift the Copa America in 2011.
“This was an extremely difficult decision,” Forlan told a news conference at his Japanese club Cerezo Osaka. “But I felt it was time. Everything has a beginning and an end — I felt it was time to make way for a new generation of players. It’s time for the national team to go in a new direction,” he said.
Forlan, who won the Golden Ball as the 2010 World Cup’s best player and finished joint top-scorer with five goals as Uruguay reached the semifinals in South Africa, insisted he had no plans to quit club football. “I’m not thinking of retiring from football at all,” he said.
Forlan, who had spells at Manchester United, Villarreal and Atletico Madrid in an illustrious career, bows out of international football as Uruguay’s second highest scorer behind Luis Suarez (43), having made his final appearance for Uruguay against Colombia at last year’s World Cup in Brazil. — AFP.
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