Former Liverpool, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres has announced his retirement from football, the Spaniard confirmed through a video he posted on his Twitter account.

It read, “I have something very important to announce. After 18 exciting years, the time has come to put an end to my football career. Next Sunday, the 23rd at 10:00AM, local time in Japan, I will have a press conference in Tokyo to explain all the details.See you there.”

Torres who graduated through the youth systems at Atletico Madrid made big impressions early on in his career after he debuted for the senior team at the age of 17 in 2001. Two years later he was given the armband, making him Atletico’s youngest captain ever. Diego Simeone the current manager at the club played under Torres’ captaincy.

In 2007, the Spaniard moved to Liverpool and took the Premier League by storm, scoring 65 goals in 102 appearances for the Merseyside club. However, in January 2011, he moved to Chelsea for then British transfer record fee of £50 miliion.

Torres had a stuttering time at Chelsea but won the Champions League with the London club in 2012 along with the FA Cup. He scored Chelsea’s opening goal in the Europa League final victory a year later before returning to Atletico Madrid in 2015 after a loan spell at AC Milan.

Torres scored 27 times in 107 appearances for his boyhood club in the second stint before making a move to J-League side Sagan Tosu in 2018.

Torres had a glittering international career winning two European Championships (2008, 2012) and a Fifa World Cup (2010) with the Spanish national team. He also scored the winner for Spain in the 2008 Euro final against Germany.

Torres ends his career having scored almost 300 goals for club and country that led to him winning a total of eight major trophies.