Official | Former Liverpool and Schalke defender Joel Matip retires from football

Former Liverpool and Schalke defender Joel Matip has announced that he has retired from football after leaving the English side in the summer.

Matip spent eight years at Liverpool where he won everything from the Premier League to the Champions League, playing a key role in each campaign when he was not injured.

The Bochum born Cameroon international also made his name in the Bundesliga. Matip joined Schalke in 2000 as a youth player and would make his debut for Die Königsblau in 2009 and would be a regular feature for the side in either central defence or in midfield before he left the club in 2016 to move to England.

After the expiry of his Liverpool contract in the summer, Matip returned to the Ruhr and was spending time with his family. According to Ruhr Nachrichten, Hamburg had shown interest in the 33-year-old, as did former club Schalke in bringing him back to the Veltins Arena for the twilight of his career.

GGFN | Jack Meenan