Former Tottenham defender has introduced that he’ll retire from skilled soccer on the finish of the season.
It comes a 12 months after the Anderlecht captain referred to as time on his worldwide profession with Belgium, retiring because the nation’s report look holder with 157 caps.
Vertonghen wrote himself into Spurs folklore throughout an eight-year spell in North London, making 315 appearances between 2012 and 2020.
He’s most vividly remembered by followers for making up one half of a formidable centre-back partnership with fellow compatriot Toby Alderweireld that acted because the spine of the aspect that reached the Champions League closing in 2019.
Vertonghen, now 37, cited a each day battle led to by an accumulation of accidents as the explanation for hanging up his boots – one thing which has plagued his season with Anderlecht, restricted to solely 5 appearances.
“Throughout all these months on the sidelines, I had time to mirror,” he mentioned in a press convention on Tuesday. “I shortly got here to the conclusion that I would not be capable of play a full 12 months on the degree I wished. I consistently undergo from ankle ache, so the choice was fairly straightforward to make.
“I’ve seen about 10 specialists this 12 months who assured me the ache would go away. However the ache is each day, and simply strolling up the stadium stairs hurts. I’ve to heat up for a really very long time earlier than I can play.
“I take painkillers and have had a number of injections, however I am not a fan of that form of shock remedy. I do not wish to be depending on painkillers. I really feel like I will nonetheless be welcome at each membership I’ve performed for, and that makes me proud, as does the truth that I have been capable of uncover many alternative nations and cultures.”
Vertonghen was tipped for stardom at Ajax after breaking by means of as a young person and spent six years within the first-team setup, earlier than incomes a transfer to Tottenham in the summertime of 2012.
There, he established his identify within the higher echelons of English soccer, being named within the PFA Premier League Workforce of the Yr twice throughout his near-decade keep at Spurs.
After changing into a free agent in the summertime of 2020, he moved to Portuguese giants Benfica earlier than returning to his homeland to play for Anderlecht in 2022, the place he was shortly awarded the captaincy.
Vertonghen will now bid farewell to the skilled sport, however has vowed to exit on a excessive forward of the Belgian Professional League’s hotly-anticipated championship play-offs.
“For the following 11 video games, these eight to 10 weeks, I will attempt to give it my all and hopefully expertise some lovely moments collectively,” Vertonghen added.
“However then the journey ends and that hasn’t been a straightforward resolution, but it surely’s a call I’ve to take and I really feel it is the proper time. We’ll do the whole lot we will to make it a implausible ending.”