Confirmed: Joel Matip Retires from Football
The 33 year old defender made 201 appearances for Liverpool.
Cameroonian centre-back and former Liverpool player Joel Matip formally announced his retirement from football this week. The 33 year old made 201 appearances for the Reds after transferring from Schalke in 2016.
During his eight year spell at the club, he won multiple trophies during Jurgen Klopp’s successful tenure at the club.
Speaking about Matip’s departure from Liverpool in May, Klopp had expressed his admiration for Matip.
“In all the years that I have been involved in football, I am not sure I have come across too many players who are more loved than Joël Matip. I’m not even sure it would be possible to say anything bad about him. A wonderful professional, a wonderful footballer and a wonderful human being – we have been blessed to have him”, he said.
“I have said before that if there was one person who wouldn’t care if he was underrated it would be Joël, but the truth is we could not have rated him more highly”, he added.
Serving often as a centre-back partner to Virgil van Dijk, a role he swapped with Joe Gomez on occasion, Matip solidified Liverpool’s defence while also providing an attacking edge from the backline with his signature runs forward.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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