Former Manchester City and Arsenal star Samir Nasri confirms retirement from football at the age of 34
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Updated 26/09/2021 at 10:27 GMT
The Frenchman has been without a club since leaving Anderlecht last year. The tricky attacking midfielder, who also had a brief stint at West Ham, received a six-month ban, later extended, in 2018 for doping after receiving an intravenous drip at a clinic in Los Angeles. He played 41 times for his national side, scoring five goals.
Samir Nasri has announced his retirement from football at the age of 34
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Samir Nasri has confirmed his retirement from football at the age of 34.
The former Manchester City and Arsenal attacking midfielder had been without a club since leaving Anderlecht last year.
Nasri, who also had a brief stint at West Ham, twice won the Premier League as a player at the Etihad Stadium, and was named in the 2010-11 PFA Team of the Year.
He scored five goals in 41 appearances for his national side, making his final appearance in 2013.
Nasri received a six-month ban, later extended and back-dated by a further 12, in 2018 after being found guilty of doping offences.
The Frenchman received an intravenous drip at a clinic in Los Angeles in breach of World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) rules.
Nasri explained that the incident had badly affected him and maintains that he did nothing wrong.
"One episode hurt me badly and changed my relationship with football: my suspension," Nasri told French paper Le Journal du Dimanche.
"I found that more than unfair - I had not taken any doping product. It was just an injection of vitamins because I was sick.
"That stopped me in my tracks."
Nasri, now a pundit for Canal+, explained that no challenge had excited him after his reunion with Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht did not work out as planned, with a return to hometown, boyhood club Marseille not an option.
"There was an emotional side, but also the idea of being a player and coaching, too," Nasri said of his time in Belgium. "I told myself that I would learn with him, [but[ it didn't go as planned.
"Then [the Belgian league] stopped because of Covid and afterwards I didn't necessarily want to [continue]. No challenge excited me. And I couldn't see myself coming back to France if it wasn't to Olympique Marseille."
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