It hurts to retire from football - Stephen Appiah

Former Ghana captain Stephen Appiah has revealed the enormous emotional struggles he faces as he grinds towards the complete end of his professional football career.

The former Juventus man has not played competitive football since leaving FK Vojvodina in 2012.

The 33-year-old’s attempt to get back into active club football was foiled with a move to Iranian club Persepolis fell through in November 2012.

Appiah nevertheless insists his club football has not come to an end despite retiring from international football after the last World Cup four years ago.

The former Black Stars captain now reveals the enormous pains he goes through as the end of his football career approaches.

“You can still see that I am fit and I am training every day and therefore so far as I have not announced that I am retired maybe there is still hope,” he told GHANAsoccernet.com.

“It is difficult to quit because even all the world class players like Zidane and Ronaldo when they announce that they are retiring you see them cry like babies.

“It really hurts. It is all about passion and with Stephen Appiah everyone knows that I have passion for the game so at a point you will say bye to football is really painful.”

Appiah has had a fabulous professional football career which began at Ghanaian giants Hearts of Oak.

He then joined Udinese, Parma and then Brescia before making a big money move to Italian giants Juventus.

A subsequent move to Turkish club Fernerbahce where Appiah enjoyed an initial flying start eventually proved to be his undoing following a wrong diagnosis and treatment of a knee injury.

A return to Italian football where he joined Bologna and Cesena and a move to Serbian club Vojvodina, did little to revive the career of the ex-Ghana great.