{"id":297137,"date":"2023-11-15T08:25:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=297137"},"modified":"2023-11-15T08:25:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:25:07","slug":"former-arsenal-star-retires-from-football-at-the-age-of-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/former-arsenal-star-retires-from-football-at-the-age-of-36\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36, having not played for over a year&#8230; with midfielder also having played for West Ham<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Midfielder rose to prominence at Arsenal before going on to play at West Ham<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It\u2019s a three-team title race&#8230; Toney could lead Arsenal to glory: It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A former Premier League star, who rose to prominence with Arsenal, has announced his retirement from football at the age of 36.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder has featured at some of Europe&#8217;s biggest clubs and represented his country Cameroon 49 times, before calling time on his international career in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>After starring with the Gunners, spending seven years of his career at the Emirates, he made the switch for Barcelona where he would win LaLiga\u00a0in 2012-13 \u2013 his only major title of his 19-year career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;d later move back to the Premier League on two successive loans, joining the Hammers on both occasions.<\/p>\n<p>But now, after stints in\u00a0Rubin Kazan, Sion, Sion II, the defensive midfielder would finish his career in\u00a0in Djibouti, collecting two Djibouti Premier League titles and two Djibouti Cups &#8211; despite only playing five time for his club, AS Arta\/Solar7.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/07\/77818545-12751287-image-a-1_1700032901533.jpg\" height=\"465\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A former Premier League star, who rose to prominence with Arsenal, has retired from football<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>The player in question is Alex Song.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His last appearance on the pitch came in the first round of last year&#8217;s CAF Champions League against Al-Merrikh in September but now the 36-year-old has decided to call time on his career to oversee the development of youth players at the African club.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is with great sadness that the time has come for me to hang up my boots,&#8217; Song wrote on Instagram.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My journey that began in Yaound\u00e9 as a child, playing with no boots, in bare feet and on hard gravel, gave me the strength and courage to succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;When I moved to France, playing for Bastia I thought I had achieved a miracle. However, this was only the start as my journey continued to Arsenal and Barcelona, two of the greatest clubs in the World.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CzoJ_d3timS\/<\/p>\n<p>A post shared by \ud835\udc00\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc31\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1d\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc12\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20 (@17alexsong)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/07\/77818655-12751287-image-a-19_1700033116737.jpg\" height=\"482\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Alex Song made 204 appearances for the Gunners, scoring 10 goals and making 23 assists<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/07\/77818343-12751287-image-m-18_1700033045976.jpg\" height=\"489\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/07\/77818613-12751287-image-m-16_1700033034336.jpg\" height=\"489\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Song would later join Barcelona for \u00a315m before making a return to England with West Ham<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;So many people have helped me along the way, my wife, my kids, family, friends, my agent, coaches and of course all my teammates whom I will forever be grateful.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Of course Charlton, West Ham, Rubin Kazan, Sion and Arta\/Solar 7 will always remain in my heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Having the honour of representing my country 60 times also filled me with great pride. I feel blessed with so many great memories that will remain with me forever.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Lastly, I would like to thank all the fans who have supported me along the way, I will treasure everything. I hope to see you all again soon. Alex. There is only one Song.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Song signed for Arsenal in 2006 and made 205 appearances for the club, before\u00a0making the \u00a315million switch\u00a0to Catalonia in the summer of 2012, after six years at Arsenal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12751287\/Former-Arsenal-star-RETIRES-football-age-36.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36, having not played for over a year&#8230; with midfielder also having played for West Ham Midfielder rose to prominence at Arsenal before going on to play at West Ham It\u2019s a three-team title race&#8230; Toney could lead Arsenal to glory: It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36 - Tell My Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/former-arsenal-star-retires-from-football-at-the-age-of-36\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36 - Tell My Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Arsenal star RETIRES from football at the age of 36, having not played for over a year&#8230; 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