Europe (Washington Insider Magazine) – With his country’s national team, Godín played 161 times, being captain 82 times, winning the 2011 Copa América and being a semifinalist in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Time passes and the players who marked a decade of world football have already begun to retire. Such is the case of the Uruguayan Diego Godín who this Sunday played his last game as a professional in what was the defeat of Vélez Sarsfield against Huracán by the slightest difference on the last date of the Argentine Soccer Professional League Tournament.
Notably moved and in tears, the 37-year-old defender assured that “they are not tears of sadness but of happiness for always having given himself to the maximum and this ending is a kind of relief. Wherever I was, I always gave myself body and soul for my teammates and for the club I defended, as well as respecting the rival and all the people.
“Twenty years of career and since I was five years old I have been playing ball and giving myself (…) That is what I take with me and for my legacy of having been a person of good both on and off the field,” said the defender in statements collected by ESPN at the end of the match.
“El Faraón” was born in Rosario, in the Uruguayan department of Colonia and after 20 years of career he says goodbye to professional football after becoming a figure in the Spanish Atlético de Madrid, where he played nine seasons and won the League, Cup and Super Cup of Spain, in addition to winning two UEFA Europa Leagues and three European Super Cups.
With his country’s team, Godín played 161 times, being captain 82 times, winning the 2011 Copa América and being a semifinalist in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with Celeste.
In his club career, the defender played for Uruguay’s Cerro and Nacional, Spain’s Villarreal, Italy’s Inter Milan and Cagliari and Brazil’s Atlético Mineiro before joining Vélez Sarsfield, making a total of 716 appearances with 44 goals scored.
This article is originally published on eldiariony.com
