Just two days after Toni Kroos retired, Thiago Alcantara decided to take that step. He, like Kroos, did not want to continue his career in Saudi Arabia. Alcantara played in top clubs, but his career was marked by injuries.
Alcantara missed over 360 games due to injuries!
Alcantara decided to end his career after his contract with Liverpool expired. He retired a year younger than Kroos, and during his career he missed over 360 matches due to various injuries. Clubs from Saudi Arabia showed great interest in him, but apparently Alcantara didn’t want to suffer anymore and potentially experience another injury while earning big money. Alcantara had Brazilian origins, was born in Italy and played for Spain.
He played top games in Barcelona and Bayern and was not lucky enough to become the champion of Europe in 2012 with Spain because he suffered a serious injury to his lower leg. If it weren’t for those injuries, his career would have been even more brilliant, although Alcantara can’t complain even with what he’s done. There are few players who can boast of having been European champions with two different clubs, and Alcantara managed to do just that. Like the former Spanish national team player with two different clubs, players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Toni Kroos, Samuel Eto’o, Deco, Xabi Alonso won the title.
Only Clarence Seedorf managed to win the Champions League with three different clubs, and Alcantara was close to that achievement. If Liverpool won the elite competition in 2022 instead of Real Madrid, Alcantara would repeat the performance of the legendary Dutch player. Alcantara was a 174 cm tall ball magician who won as many as 27 titles during his career.
He was the champion of Spain four times with Barcelona, conquered the Bundesliga seven times with Bayern, while his greatest success with Liverpool was winning the FA Cup in addition to the Champions League final. In these three teams, Alcantara recorded a total of 433 appearances with a performance of 45 goals and 63 assists. As for the national team, he made his debut for Spain at the beginning of August 2011 and ended up making 46 appearances with two goals and nine assists. If there were no injuries, he would probably have achieved results with the national team at the level of those he achieved in the club.
He certainly regrets the most that in 2012 he was not on the list before the Euro, where Spain became the only national team in history that managed to defend the title. He left Barcelona in 2013 and moved to Bayern for 25,000,000 euros. After seven years and seven titles in the Bundesliga with the Munich team, Alcantara moved to Liverpool for 22,000,000 euros. In England, he made only 68 appearances in the Premier League in four seasons, although in the end he was only four appearances short of reaching the jubilee 100 appearances in all competitions for the English club.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2020/03/13/2794048-57664970-2560-1440.jpg "Thiago Alcantara - He was a little short of being like Seedorf 4")
While playing for the club from Anfield, the problem with injuries culminated and Alcantara could not find the right rhythm. He missed over 100 games, half of them due to a hip injury. A particularly interesting fact is that Alcantara never managed to play all the games in the league in which he played. He made the most appearances in the Bundesliga in the 2018/19 season, when he played 30 games in the strongest German league. In all other seasons, the number of appearances was less than that figure, which is not so strange when it is known that he missed over 360 games in his career.
Despite the numerous injuries, we cannot say that they destroyed his career, which in the end was still brilliant and with a handful of trophies won. Counting appearances in all clubs and representation on the field, we saw him a total of 534 times with 50 goals scored. By the way, he was the son of the famous Brazilian player Mazinho and the brother of Rafinho, who played like him for Barcelona and later for PSG. Alcantara said goodbye to football via social networks as follows:
“I will always be willing to give back what I have been given and I am grateful for the time I have enjoyed it,” he said in a social media post confirming the decision to retire.
“Thank you, football. And to all who accompanied me and made me a better player and person along the way. See you soon.”
In just a few days, football lost two great players who together won 60 trophies. When he didn’t have problems with injuries, it was a real pleasure to watch Alcantara, and for everything he showed, he should be given a lot of credit.
