Former England’s national team defender, 36-year-old, Phil Neville has announced his retirement from soccer. Neville has been one of the legendary English defenders who could manage to stretch his playing career for more than eighteen glorious years. During his career, he played for several teams including some high profile clubs as well, like Manchester United and Everton. He also served England under21 team as coach for Championship campaign back in Israel. He started his career playing for EPL club Manchester United back in 1995 and initiated his soccer profession with a victory over arch rival Manchester City. Later, he participated in six EPL titles, three FA cups along with Community Shield and Champions League in 1999. His last club was Everton which he joined back in 2005 at a signing fee of £3.5m; he also captained The Toffeemen during David Moyes regime and ended his eight glorious years playing for them this season. He also revealed that he had planned much earlier to retire from soccer but did not want to announce his departure with other legendries like Sir Alex Ferguson, David Beckham, and Paul Scholes. He justified his retirement decision during a calm atmosphere by saying that “Three weeks ago, everyone in the world seemed to be retiring. I thought ‘I’m not jumping on this bandwagon. I just wanted it to be a smooth, quiet turnover. I didn’t want that.
“When I made a statement that I was leaving Everton, everywhere I went I seemed to be getting ‘oh you’ve been brilliant’. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be seen as an attention-seeker. The biggest thing I will miss is 4 July when Everton are due back for pre-season training. I loved that day. I lived for it, getting back with the lads.”
As far his future plans are concerned, he doesn’t have any definite plan though he has some offers to work in different capacities at different places and BBC or media is his top priorities. He predicts his next two years as, “If you had asked me two months ago, I thought I’d do a year with BBC or in the media. It might work for some people but not me.
“I will be going to the World Cup next year with the BBC – I won’t be going as a player – I do enjoy the media side but I want to work, I want to coach, I want to get more hours on the grass. I have got two paths – one to go into the media, the other to go into coaching and management. I have got offers from both. I will sit down at the end of the tournament.”