Former Liverpool and Lazio soccer player Lucas Leiva decided to hang up his boots due to heart problems.
Thirty-six-year-old Leiva ended his career where he started – in Gremio.
The Brazilian just moved from Gremio for five million pounds back in 2007 to Liverpool, for whom he played 346 games before moving to Rome and donning Lazio’s shirt in 2017.
For the team from the city of the Beatles, he played 247 matches in the Premier League and ranks fourth among Brazilians who have played in England.
“I can be grateful for the career I have built. The day has come when I have to say goodbye to the lawn and I admit that higher forces forced me to this decision. I’m ending my career where I wanted, but not when I wanted. I had high hopes that I would be able to continue, but it turns out that I won’t. My health comes first,’ Lucas Leiva wrote on social networks.
He won the League Cup with Liverpool in 2012, and the Italian Cup with Lazio. He made 24 appearances for the Brazilian national team.
