Joao Coimbra announced the end of his career on social networks, in a long text, in which he mentions the physical problems he suffered throughout the seasons, including two knee surgeries and two ankles “looking like four”.

“The last match was over a month ago, and I’m still in pain when walking, and maybe I’ll have to have knee surgery again, and I don’t want to write this text and I don’t want this to end,” he wrote on his Twitter account. The former midfielder, who played for Benfica, believes he could have really moved on with his career. “I feel like I have the quality to get out like I’ve never done in the first league,” the now-aged 35-year-old said Monday, ending a long message of thanks to the family.

It must be remembered that in addition to the incarnate, João Coimbra also passed through Nacional, Gil Vicente, Estoril and Ac. Viseu, União de Leiria and Trofense in Portugal and also by the Romanians in Rapid Bucharest, by the Indians in Kerala Blaster and by Luxembourg in Mondorf-les-Bains, where he now hangs his shoes.

Read the full text:

“It was the last match over a month ago. I’m still in pain when walking. I might have to have knee surgery again. I don’t want to write this text, I don’t want this to end.”

When I was a kid when I saw a shooting star I wished to myself: I want to be a footballer, because I love this game. I did, you got to where I always dreamed! But it went too fast, and now the dream is over.

What is left? Two ankles look like four. Two surgeries on the knee (maybe with a third on the way), a lumbar hernia roughly, a dislocated shoulder, a traumatic brain injury with a temporary cardiac arrest (at least that’s what I was told at the time because I can’t remember anything), a lot of muscle pain and some breakdowns Muscle, massive mental wear and tear that stole hours and days of sleep. An infinite amount of voltages, an addiction to sleeping pills to make sure you slept enough hours due to anxiety before gaming, as decades expired. I don’t remember the last time I started training or playing without pain (yes, I did, because the pains often disappeared as if by a miracle). I even think the hair has fallen off because of football.

What was really important remained. Wonderful lifelong friendships, great stories and experiences, great knowledge and different cultures. I played the game, not always with the joy it deserved, but when it happened it was something magical, something that never came back. Enjoy every second as it passes so fast.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in my story, everyone who was present, thank you very much. The bitterness remained that I could have gone further, feeling like I had the quality to get out like I hadn’t done in the first league.

It was the way it was, it could have been better, but it could have been worse, without remorse, with the idea that if I were mentally stronger, I could have kept and asserted myself at the top for longer. Yes, because in spite of everything I went there.

I always tried to respect everything and everyone, and I didn’t always get some mindless attitude. Some do not deserve them, and others deserve much worse. I leave with a clear conscience, always doing my best, sweating and always respecting the jacket I wore.

Football is not an easy world at all, but this is the world I love, where I have always been and want to stay in, where I feel like I still have a lot to reciprocate for everything it has given me!

One final word to me … I’m lucky to have such a wonderful family. Thank you for bearing with me.

Come to the next challenge. ”