Cazorla to call time on playing career
Santi Cazorla has confirmed he will call time on his playing career at the end of the 2025-2026 campaign.
Cazorla, who plays for boyhood club Real Oviedo, has made 569 appearances throughout his club career, scoring 107 goals and registering 124 assists.
The 40 year-old helped Oviedo return to LaLiga last season, converting a penalty in a 3-1 extra-time win in the second leg of the Segunda Division play-off final.
Oviedo will now compete in the Spanish top flight for the first time in 24 years, kickstarting its campaign away to Villarreal, a club where Cazorla made his name.
Across three different spells with Villarreal, Cazorla appeared 320 times across all competitions, netting 55 goals and providing 52 assists.
Earlier last month, Cazorla put pen to paper on a new one-year deal with Oviedo, but he said the injuries sustained throughout his career have now caught up with him.
"This will be my last season. I have to listen to my body, and it's already asking me," Cazorla said. "When I was a kid, I always dreamed of playing at the club, and I'm here now - lucky and able to play with my club in the top division.
"I love to play football, but as with everything, you have to know when it is the end. I have a lot of problems and pains every day."
Cazorla's injury issues began during his time at Arsenal, where he spent six years of his playing career.
He picked up an ankle injury while on international duty for Spain against Chile, and while trying to play through the pain, the issue required surgery.
The Spaniard spent 636 days on the sidelines, with Cazorla saying that his period on the injury table was among the most difficult of his career.
"I never believed this kind of thing," Cazorla said. "The injury was really hard. I was never honest with the injury, I was thinking I had a small one."
"It was the most difficult moment in my career, not only in football, but in my life.
"I was without my family, my wife and kids, but you have to fight - if you have a dream, you have to fight every day.
"My wife, kids, my mum, brother... I had to fight for them. It was a very difficult time for me as a person.
"One day you are at the Emirates to play and a week later you are alone in hospital. It's difficult to control these kind of emotions."
But after returning from his setback, Cazorla was unable to convince Arsenal to give him a new deal in 2018.
"I remember when I started to feel better after a year and a half, I came back and asked, 'please give me the chance to do pre-season, and after I would like to sign one year more,'" Cazorla said.
"They told me they felt I wouldn't come back to the top level. It's normal when you are out for two years.
"I was very honest with them - give me the chance because I'm ready again. They said no, and I have to understand that position."
