France's World Cup-winning midfielder Patrick Vieira retires

Jul 14, 2011 |

AP via PTI

Manchester

Tags:

Patrick Vieira

France's World Cup-winning midfielder Patrick Vieira retired on Thursday to take up a role as football development executive with Manchester City, where he will help guide and mentor young players.

With Vieira also having won the European Championship, three Premier League titles and four Serie A championships, City wants the 35-year-old former France international to help develop top-class players.

City currently relies upon its financial muscle in the transfer market to bolster its squad but must trim its largesse to conform with UEFA's financial fair play rules. "I have a lot to learn about the non-playing areas of the business but there are many very experienced people here for me to learn from," Vieira said. "I am confident that I can make a significant contribution to the club's ongoing success."

The former AC Milan, Arsenal, Juventus and Inter Milan player was City coach Roberto Mancini's first signing when he took over.

Vieira joined in January 2010 and helped the club win last season's FA Cup and qualify for the Champions League for the first time.

"His experience in the world of football is virtually unparalleled and he will be a huge asset to our club as old and young alike benefit from his knowledge," City chief football operations officer Brian Marwood said. "His contribution to world football during his time as a player was extraordinary and he will be remembered as one of the greatest players to grace the Premier League.

"Whilst it is sad to see Patrick's playing career come to an end, we are delighted that he has chosen to extend his time with Manchester City in this new capacity."

The Senegal-born Vieira, who won the World Cup in 1998 with France and the European Championship two years later, started his career with Milan before a nine-year stint with Arsenal, where he was consistently first choice in central midfield.

He spent five years in Italy from 2005 before playing out his career at City under former Inter coach Mancini.

"You can only have lot of respect for what Patrick has achieved," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "His career is sensational. He was an exceptional player for us. We have classy players in midfield now but Patrick was special. He was a tall player with good technique.

"At Arsenal we will be forever grateful for Patrick's contribution."

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/84913" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4d1132dac2ee4a785d66afff809be227" value="form-4d1132dac2ee4a785d66afff809be227" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80652495" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>