Gary Neville Announces His Retirement

Gary Neville, Manchester United's legendary right back, has announced his retirement from football tonight with immediate effect. The announcement was made first and exclusively by the clubs website, and it follows Edwin Van Der Sar's retirement decision by a week, however the Dutch goalkeeper will hang his gloves at the end of May, whereas Neville will stop immediately.

Gary Neville has been a Manchester United player since 1991, and never looked back since, winning countless Premier League Titles, along with a Champions League trophy in 1999. He became club captain in 2006 following the departure of Roy Keane, but lost the armband to Nemanja Vidic this season due to his injury proneness.

Despite having 2 awful last games for the club, he will be remembered fondly by United fans for owning the right back position for almost two decades, linking up mostly with David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo during his time. He was also famous for his off field antics too, like asking Sir Alex to sign Ronaldo after playing a friendly against him in the summer of 2003, and always helping the younger players communicate with Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager commented about the latter by saying:

"He’s a leader and already looks after the young players at the club. I don’t know why they’ve got Gary. The ones he’s looked after owe him a large debt. When I see him about to come into my office on their behalf I think ‘crikey here we go".

The former defender has not commented on what he i thinking of doing next, but rumors across England are circulating that he might become a Sky Sports commentator, taking the place of Andy Gray.

Another speculation links Neville to coaching. Gary Neville has, along with Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, his coaching badges, which means he can work as part of Sir Alex's coaching staff. He can take the position left by Ole Solskjaer and coach the reserve team, as he has experience doing that. It is the writers opinion that with Neville's passion, he can get the best of the second string squad of Manchester United.

On behalf of The Final Say writers, we wish Gary Neville, as well as all retiring footballers across the globe, the best in their future endeavors.

Jassim