Liverpool veteran defender Joel Matip confirms retirement from football

Liverpool: Former Liverpool defender Joel Matip confirmed his retirement from football on Saturday. The centre-back departed the Reds in the summer after an eight-year spell that included 201 appearances and multiple major honours with the club.

Signed on a free transfer from Schalke 04 in 2016, Matip was a key figure throughout Jurgen Klopp’s reign as manager, helping to secure a return to Champions League football and starring in the run to glory in the competition in 2019 – including an assist for Divock Origi in the final against Tottenham Hotspur.

Matip featured as Liverpool went on to add the UEFA Super Cup, and was involved in nine Premier League games in 2019-20 as Klopp’s team emphatically ended the club’s 30-year wait to be crowned English champions again.

After a long-term injury curtailed his 2020-21 campaign, the ex-Cameroon international returned to stellar form as the Reds launched a quadruple bid the following season.

Matip went on to play 43 games that season, his most in a single campaign for the club, and appeared in both finals as the Carabao Cup and FA Cup were lifted at Wembley while he and his teammates also finished runners-up in the top-flight and Champions League.

He continued to be an important member of the squad in 2022-23 and into the beginning of 2023-24, but a cruel anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered last December prevented him from playing for the club again.

Matip and supporters said farewell to one another at Anfield on the final day of last season, ahead of the expiry of his contract, and he has now confirmed that his playing career has reached a conclusion.

In international football, Matip made 27 appearances and scored once for Cameroon, with whom he played at the World Cup in 2010 and 2014.