NewsThiago Alcantara announces retirement from football

The midfielder, whose four-year spell with Liverpool FC ended this summer, calls time on a professional career filled with honours and magnificent moments.

Thiago emerged through the youth ranks at Barcelona and began to truly break into the team at Camp Nou during a 2010-11 campaign that included La Liga and Champions League glory.

Blessed with a preternatural ability on the ball and vision on the pitch, he was a fixture with Barça for the next two seasons, bolstering his medal collection with another Spanish title, a FIFA Club World Cup and a Copa del Rey.

Thiago embarked on a new chapter in 2013 by moving to Bayern Munich, where collective success – and his influence upon it – continued to flow.

Indeed, he and the Bavarians lifted the Bundesliga championship in each of his seven campaigns with the club, as well as four German cups and another Club World Cup.

His time in Munich concluded at the top, with Thiago hugely impactful throughout Bayern’s run to Champions League success at the end of a protracted 2019-20 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growing speculation linking him with Liverpool subsequently materialised in September 2020 as a transfer to Anfield was sealed and he took the No.6 jersey.

Though the next four years would be affected by injuries, Thiago’s 98 appearances for the Reds were brimming with his trademark class and quality.

Not least during an exhilarating 2021-22 campaign that saw Jürgen Klopp’s team challenge for a sensational quadruple and clinch the Carabao Cup and Emirates FA Cup.

Upon the expiry of his contract on Merseyside this summer, Thiago said farewell to LFC, with Anfield having sent him off with gratitude and respect on the final day of 2023-24 in May.

At international level, he was also capped on 46 occasions by Spain, scoring twice.