Raffaele Cretaro has announced his retirement quashing rumours that he was set to play on for Finn Harps.
The Sligo native, 39, had spoken to Ollie Horgan at the end of last season about staying on.
But Cretaro has just announced he is hanging up his boots.
He tweeted “Don’t cry because it’s over smile because it happened, football owes me nothing I owe it everything.”
Cretaro was the oldest outfield player in the Premier Division in 2020 with only goalkeepers Mark McNulty and Gary Rogers born before him.
He said only a few weeks ago “I’ve had a 20-year career, some people don’t get half that. If you’d asked me ten years ago if I’d still be playing now, I doubt I’d have said ‘yes’.
“I’ve been lucky to be injury-free and available to play most of the games but that’s testament to how the management have used me I haven’t been flogged.”
Cretaro has already planned for life beyond retirement by obtaining his Uefa A licence and starting his own coaching school.
Prior to lockdown, he was in schools every morning and worked with local clubs around his own training commitments.
The school work has dried up since the onset of Covid-19 but he has kept busy working with organisations such as the Sligo Traveller Support Group.
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