Plus: swift ascents up the pyramid, Steve Palmer’s maverick set of shirts and an infamous 2004 Olympic penalty
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“During a rather animated discussion at the pub recently, the topic of footballers ‘retiring from international football’ came up,” says Edd Crick. “We were reminiscing about the days when footballers simply stopped being picked for international games, so who was the first to come out and declare their retirement this way?”
We assumed this was a fairly modern development, but it goes back at least as far as the 1950s. Let’s look at the leading answers in reverse chronological order, starting with one of the stars of Italia 90. “Roger Milla is arguably responsible for popularising the concept of international retirement (not to mention elaborate goal celebrations) by famously unretiring at the request of the Cameroon president Paul Biya to play in the 1990 World Cup,” writes Tom Reed. “Milla had formally retired from playing for Cameroon at a jubilee event following victory in the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations.”
The legendary Italy keeper Dino Zoff, who played against Milla at the 1982 World Cup, decided it was time to say goodbye in 1983 at the age of 41. Italy had just lost 1-0 to Romania, part of a desperate qualification campaign for Euro 84, with Zoff at fault for the goal. “That goal was a sort of sentence for me,” he said. “It’s by far the best to recognise the way things are going.” He played one last game, a 2-0 defeat in Sweden the following month, before bowing out with 112 caps.
