The football world says goodbye to Iker Casillas on his retirement

Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas announced that he has officially retired from football on Tuesday.

The Spanish keeper spent 16 years with the Real Madrid senior team and 8 years with the academy. He won 19 titles with Real. He served as captain of the club for five seasons. He holds the record for both most clean sheets in the Champions League and with the Spanish National Team. He won the World Cup with Spain in 2010.

Casillas suffered a heart attack while with Porto in 2019, which led to him having to make a difficult consideration to step away from football. It was also announced that Casillas would serve as an advisor to Florentino Pérez back in July.

On a personal level, Casillas is one of my favorite Real Madrid players of all time. He’s a big reason why I follow this club and he defined a generation of world class goalkeepers. He was an iconic figure between the posts for years and served this club well. It hurts just as much as it did in when he left in 2015, but it’s comforting to to know he’ll have a role at the club in this next chapter of his career.

Congratulations on your retirement legend, you’ll always be San Iker of Madrid. Several figures around the football world gave their well wishes to Casillas on his retirement day.

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez

Real Madrid captain and former teammate Sergio Ramos

Real Madrid forward Marco Asensio

Former Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho

Former Porto teammate Óliver Torres

Juventus & Italian goalkeeper legend Gianluigi Buffon

Casillas’ Champions League highlights

#Grac1as