Former Liverpool, Spain goalkeeper Pepe Reina announces retirement

New York Times

20-05-2025

Former Liverpool, Barcelona and Spain goalkeeper Pepe Reina has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 42.
Reina made over 900 appearances in a senior career spanning 25 years and was part of Spain's 2010 World Cup-winning squad.
He has spent the final season of his playing career Como in Serie A, and sources close to Reina indicated he is now in talks to join his former side Villarreal as a goalkeeping coach in the club's youth system.
Reina confirmed his retirement via a statement that read: 'It (my career) has been much longer than I dreamed, and it has been so short that I would live it all over again. Only three days after the 'last dance', so many emotions, people, and experiences come to my mind that I can only sum it up with an immense THANK YOU.
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'My heartfelt thanks to all those people who have crossed my path, the greatest asset of this profession, from all of them I carry a little piece, and I do not forget that they have helped me to live this authentic privilege of a career as a footballer.
'I feel proud and calm about every moment I have lived; the bad ones because they taught me, the good ones because they have made me an extraordinarily happy guy. Thanks to God for blessing me with a family that is responsible for all the good things that have happened to me, and to whom I will not have years of life to pay them back.'
❤️ 𝟭 𝗠𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗹 y 𝟮 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗮𝘀 con la @SEFutbol.
¡Menuda carrera la tuya, @PReina25!
👏 Toda una 𝗟𝗘𝗬𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗔.
🫂 Suerte en tus nuevos desafíos y gracias, 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘀.
📸 Matthew Ashton.#VamosEspaña pic.twitter.com/aPuGqGEDNu
— Selección Española Masculina de Fútbol (@SEFutbol) May 20, 2025
Reina is a product of Barcelona's La Masia academy and made his professional debut for the club in 2000. He made 49 appearances for Barcelona's first team before moving to Villarreal in 2002 and then Liverpool in 2005.
During eight seasons at Anfield, Reina made 394 appearances and won four trophies, including the FA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. He was also a Champions League runner-up in 2006-07.
He then had spells at Napoli, Bayern Munich, Milan, Aston Villa, Lazio, and Villarreal before joining Como in the summer of 2024. He has made 12 appearances for Como this campaign, whose manager is his former Spain team-mate Cesc Fabregas.
Reina earned 36 caps at senior international level with Spain and was part of the squad that won successive European Championships in 2008 and 2012, and the World Cup for the first time in the country's history in 2010.
He made 191 appearances across two spells with Villarreal between 2002 and 2005, and 2022 and 2024.