• Premier League

Gallas calls time on 19-year career

William Gallas most recently appeared for the A-League's Perth Glory © Getty Images

Enlarge

William Gallas has retired from football after an 18-year career which included spells at Premier League heavyweights Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

Gallas, 37, will officially bring to an end the career he began at Caen in 1996 when he speaks to Sport Confidential - L'Equipe's TV channel - on Thursday evening.

Gallas, a former France international, spent five years at Chelsea and helped them to two Premier League titles - including their first English league title win in 50 years - as well as the League Cup.

He then left for Arsenal in 2006 as part of a deal that saw Ashley Cole move the other way and became captain of the club, before joining arch-rivals Tottenham in 2013. Gallas also played for Marseille, while he was at A-League side Perth Glory last season.

"It's something which isn't easy to announce," he said in L'Equipe. "You always say to yourself that you can continue, but I think today I can't do it anymore."

Capped 84 times by his country, Gallas helped France reach the 2006 World Cup final, and scored five international goals.

Among those was the controversial strike that sent France through to the 2010 World Cup at the expense of Republic of Ireland, who felt cheated given Thierry Henry appeared to handle the ball before crossing for his team-mate to find the back of the net.

Part of the France squad that went to the tournament in South Africa and infamously went on strike in protest at Nicolas Anelka's exclusion, Gallas did not play again for his nation after their ignominious group-stage exit.

"I didn't play well [in South Africa], but in the space of three games, everything was brought into question," he said, adding he was not "a leader" of the strike.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd