Spanish football legend announces retirement from football
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Real Betis captain and legend Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez "Joaquin" has announced that he will be retiring from football at the end of the current season.
The 41-year-old is a Betis academy graduate, and over the course of his 23-year-career, he played for the Spanish national team, Real Betis, Valencia, Malaga and Fiorentina, and is now set to retire at the club where it all started for him, nothing short of a legend.
Joaquim announces retirement
The winger took to social media to pen an emotional message announcing that he was calling it quits as a football player, effective at the end of the season.
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"I wanted to say my time has come," Joaquin said, per the BBC.
"The time to tell you this is my last season as a Real Betis player.
But this is not farewell, it is just 'see you soon' because I will continue by your side, defending my life, because Real Betis has been my life.
"I will live it in a different way but with the same feeling and the same joy of all these years."
Joaquim recently captained Betis to their first Copa del Rey title since 2005, a triumph he was also part of. He also won the trophy with Valencia.
He has made 839 club appearances, 521 of them for Betis, and has been capped 51 times.
Joaquin is also only seven games away from equaling Andoni Zubizarreta's record of most appearances by a single player in LaLiga, cementing his legendary status.
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