Franck Ribery calls time on his football career

Bengaluru, October 21: Former France and Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has decided to hang up his football boots.

A FIFA World Cup runner-up with France in 2006, Ribery's greatest successes came at Bayern Munich, where over 12 seasons he won nine league titles and the 2013 UEFA Champions League.

Ribery's current contract with Serie A club Salernitana would have taken his stay at with the Italian League side up to the end of this season, but he has decided to hang his boots up now.

The 39-year-old also played for a number of other clubs in a 22-year career, including Metz, Galatasaray, Marseille and Fiorentina.

Ribery spent the bulk of his career at Bayern, though, where he won nine Bundesliga titles in 12 years.

He also won six DFB-Pokal titles, one UEFA Champions League, a UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup.

In his time at the Bavarian giants, Ribery made 273 Bundesliga appearances, recording 86 goals and 92 assists.

He wrote on Twitter: "The ball stops. The feelings inside me do not. Thanks to everyone for this great adventure."

Ribery forged a spectacular wing partnership with Arjen Robben, with the duo terrorising defences from either flank during their decade together in Munich, before both left the club in 2019.

Ribery won 81 caps for France in all, scoring 16 times before retiring from international football in 2014, and was a member of Les Bleus' squad when they finished as runners-up to Italy at the 2006 World Cup.

He moved to Fiorentina after leaving Germany, scoring five and assisting nine goals in 51 appearances before signing for Salernitana in 2021.

Overall he managed just three assists in 25 games for the club, and featured only twice this season, both times in August, in the Coppa Italia against Parma and as a substitute in the 1-0 Serie A defeat at home to Roma.

Though a persisten knee injry has been troublinh him since the start of the season, Ribery will remain at Salernitana in a non-playing capacity, the club said.

Ribery has not featured for Salernitana, who he joined in 2021, since their opening day loss to Roma and his retirement had been rumoured for several weeks.

Now that Ribery has decided to hang up his boots, he could take up a management role at Salernitana, who confirmed earlier this month that they were talking with the Frenchman about a position at the club.

(With inputs from Agencies)