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Montevideo: <\/strong>Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez declared his retirement from international football on Monday, concluding a 17-year tenure with the national team as its leading scorer, netting 69 goals.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old, who boasts 142 caps for Uruguay, embarked on his international journey in 2007 and played a pivotal role in the team that made it to the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup and clinched the Copa America the following year.<\/p>\n \u201cFriday\u2019s match will mark my final appearance for the national team,\u201d Suarez, visibly moved, stated during a press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision to retire is mine, and it\u2019s comforting to know I\u2019m doing so on my own terms, not due to injuries or being overlooked. It\u2019s a tough call, but I\u2019m at peace knowing I\u2019ve dedicated everything up to the very last game, and my passion for the game hasn\u2019t dwindled,\u201d he expressed.<\/p>\n Uruguay is set to face Paraguay at Montevideo\u2019s Centenario stadium this Friday in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, followed by a match against Venezuela four days later.<\/p>\n Suarez\u2019s last-minute goal against Canada, which clinched third place at the Copa America in July, was a highlight, and he mentioned his goal was to prove he could still make a significant contribution to the team. \u201cI\u2019ve always dreamed that my children would witness me achieve something significant with the national team\u2026 that final goal was a beautiful moment for them, and while it wasn\u2019t a trophy, it was still very special,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n \u201cI aimed to demonstrate that I could still be valuable to the national team. After the Copa America, I could have retired, but I chose to do it surrounded by my people, in my home stadium. I want my children to experience this farewell. It\u2019s a unique opportunity that not many have had,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Suarez has previously announced that Inter Miami will be his final club, having joined the MLS team last year to reunite with his ex-Barcelona teammates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n [ad_2] [ad_1] Montevideo: Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez declared his retirement from international football on Monday, concluding a 17-year tenure with the national team as its leading scorer, netting 69 goals. The 37-year-old, who boasts 142 caps for Uruguay, embarked on his international journey in 2007 and played a pivotal role in the team that made it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/download-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43561,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43559\/revisions\/43561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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