Five players who retired at a young age due to illness or injury

FT Desk

Updated: 11 Oct 2022 21:35 BST
4 min read

Sergio Aguero, Barcelona, 2021-22 — © ProShots

Enock Mwepu has had to retire at the tender age of 24 due to a congenital heart condition, and the Brighton midfielder is far from the only player to have seen their career cut short through illness or injury.

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Football can be a relatively short career for every player, with the vast majority retiring from playing before they hit 40, but for some it can end much sooner than they envisioned.

Eric Cantona wanted to hang up his boots and pursue acting when a 30-year old forward for Manchester United, so isn't included in this list in which Football Transfers looks at players who have stopped playing against their will.

Marco van Basten, 28

The classic example, Marco van Basten was one of the most feared strikers in world football during his 1980s and 1990s heyday, winning the Ballon d'Or on three separate occasions when the primary attacking outlet for the game's dominant force at the time, AC Milan.

But repeated fouls put paid to his career in 1995 when Van Basten was still just 28. His story is a major contributing factor to the fact that tackles from behind are now banned in football.

Sergio Aguero, 33

A more recent example, Sergio Aguero retired last year at 33. Older than Van Basten, Aguero also played in an era when elite-level performance has been stretched further by a number of years thanks to modern medicine and training practices.

Perhaps best remembered for the "Agueroooooo" goal that saw Manchester City snatch the Premier League title from United on the final day of the 2011/12 season, Aguero left for Barcelona in May 2021, but five appearances and a heart murmur later he called it a day.

On this date in 2012, Aguerooooo 🗣️🔊

🎥: @ManCity pic.twitter.com/BEdeCumkWI
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 13, 2021

Fabrice Muamba, 24

Seeing Christian Eriksen lining up for Manchester United after cardiac arrest with Denmark at Euro 2020 is both incredible and slightly surreal at the same time, especially for those who witnessed Fabrice Muamba suffer the same nine years earlier.

An Arsenal academy graduate and England under-21 international, Muamba's life was saved by medics during Bolton's FA Cup meeting with Tottenham Hotspur - one of whom was in attendance as a fan - in March 2012. Now an academy coach at Bolton.

Owen Hargreaves, 31

The first player to have played for England without ever having lived in the country, Canada-born Owen Hargreaves was Champions League-winning midfielder when he joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich in 2007.

Persistent knee injuries interrupted his career at Old Trafford, though, and he retired in 2012 at the age of 31 after a brief spell across town at Manchester City. Later blamed his injury predicament on United's treatments.

Gueida Fofana, 25

Gueida Fofana was touted as being the next Patrick Vieira when he broke through at Lyon in 2011, and was an extra-time goal away from completing a French domestic treble of Coupe de France, Trophee des Champions and Coupe de la Ligue in 2012.

A physically imposing defensive midfielder, he retired five years later aged just 25, telling his employers halfway through the 2016/17 campaign that his ankles simply wouldn't hold up. Now in charge of OL's reserves.