Alvaro Arbeloa: Final season at West Ham helped convince me to retire

Struggle: Alvaro Arbeloa made just three appearances for the Hammers
Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United via Getty Images

Alvaro Arbeloa has admitted his season at West Ham helped convince him to hang up his boots.

The defender called time on a professional career spanning 15 years with an announcement in Spanish newspaper Marca.

Arbeloa, who also spent two years at Liverpool, won La Liga once and the Champions League twice during a seven-year spell at Real Madrid but made just three appearances at the London Stadium.

"I always thought I would play until my legs held out, but in the end it was a head and motivation issue," he told Marca.

"Many times you consider life in a way or see the future in a way, but life has other things prepared and you have to know how to accept them and face them.

"Things this season did not come out as I had dreamed. I am being honest with myself when I say goodbye."

He added: "It has been complicated. It’s something that when it comes to my mind I try not to think much about.

"At a professional level it has not been an easy year and that also has a personal impact, of course."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in