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Oguchi Onyewu announces retirement

WCQ - Barbados v United States

CARSON, CA - JUNE 15: Oguchi Onyewu #5 of the USA looks on prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match against Barbados at the Home Depot Center on June 15, 2008 in Carson, California. USA defeated Barbados 8-0. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

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USMNT legend Oguchi Onyewu appears to have announced his retirement from the game.

The towering central defender posted a message on his Instagram page on Monday morning with the following caption: “All good things must come to an end...Thank you. #Blessed #Honored #Proud #TheEnd

The message also featured a video which had photos of him playing and a song which suggested his career is over.

Onyewu, 36, has battled through injuries over the past few years and most recently played for the Philadelphia Union in MLS in 2017.

Before that Onyewu had spent the past 15 years playing in Europe, with stops in France, Belgium, England, Portugal, Holland, Spain and Italy. His previous clubs include AC Milan, Newcastle, Malaga and Sporting Lisbon, with his most successful spell coming at Standard Liege from 2004-09.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn0vf7-BxWX/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=i48kpnf9ub8u

The former Clemson Tiger won 69 caps for the U.S. men’s national team, scoring six times as he featured in both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and was voted as U.S. Soccer’s athlete of the year in 2006.

In recent times Onyewu had a string of stops at second-tier teams in England which saw him make just 19 appearances across three seasons, while he seemed to have been planning for retirement since leaving the Union in December 2017 as he opened a gym in Richmond, Virginia earlier this year.

A dominant force when in his prime Onyewu’s best moments for the U.S. include his performance against Spain in the semifinals of the 2009 Confederations Cup and his stare down of Jared Borgetti. While another memorable moment was his training ground spat with Zlatan Ibrahimovic when he was at Milan.

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