Portugal legend Luis Figo on Saturday announced his definitive retirement from the game. His final match will be on Sunday when the Italian champions entertain Atalanta at the San Siro. It will bring down the curtain on a glorious career that saw the 36-year-old win eight league titles, four national cup competitions, the Champions League and the now defunct European Cup Winners' Cup.
"Tomorrow, May 31 2009, will be my last Sunday as a footballer. I'm happy that my last Sunday as a footballer will be a party for me and for everyone at Inter after our fourth successive scudetto," he said on the Inter website. "Winning was always the only real objective of my career. Winning everything that I could win, from practice matches in training to championships, cups and personal trophies. "And I have known only one road on the path to victory, that of sacrifice and hard work.
"They taught me that as a young lad at Sporting (Lisbon) and everything I've achieved didn't happen out of chance but due to many sacrifices." Figo certainly has won a lot, starting with a Portuguese Cup with Sporting in 1995, the same year he moved on to Barcelona. Figo, who is married to Swedish model Helen Svedin, earned a remarkable 127 caps for Portugal, scoring 32 goals while playing almost 800 club games.