Sergio Aguero in tears has announced his retirement from football.

The sad news comes just six months after Aguero joined Barcelona, mov­ing to Camp Nou after a stel­lar decade spent at reign­ing Pre­mier League cham­pi­ons Man­ches­ter City.

At the Eti­had, the Argenti­na star became a bona-fide Pre­mier League leg­end, also becom­ing the club’s record goal-scor­er with 260 goals in 390 games, and win­ning five league titles.

The 33-year-old moved to Spain in the sum­mer to team up with close pal Lionel Mes­si for the first time at club lev­el — only to see Mes­si depart for PSG amid Bar­ca’s finan­cial issues.

And now Aguero’s own Barcelona career is at a pre­ma­ture end, fol­low­ing a heart scare dur­ing the first-half of Barcelon­a’s La Liga clash with Alavés in October.

Aguero fell to the turf, hold­ing his chest while in dis­com­fort as club medics rushed on. After a lengthy spell of treat­ment on the pitch, Aguero was able to stand up and walk out of action, the strik­er was then swift­ly sent for car­di­o­log­i­cal tests.

Hav­ing seen the results of the tests, Barcelona stat­ed how the Argen­tine would be side­lined for three months as he under­took a “diag­nos­tic and ther­a­peu­tic process”.
Sad­ly, that process has been cut short as Aguero con­firms his stun­ning, tro­phy-laden 18-year career will come to pre­ma­ture and unex­pect­ed end at the age of 33.

“I have decid­ed to stop play­ing pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball, it is a very dif­fi­cult moment, announced Aguero. “The deci­sion I have made, I have tak­en it for my health, because of the prob­lem I had a month and a half ago.

“I was in the hands of the med­ical staff and they told me the best thing would be to stop play­ing. So 10 days ago I made that deci­sion, I want to tell every­one I did every­thing pos­si­ble to have some hope but there was­n’t much.

“I am very proud of the career I have had, I have always dreamt of play­ing football.

“I nev­er thought I would get to Europe, so I want to show my grat­i­tude to every­one. From Atleti­co Madrid, who took a bet on me when I was 18 years old, to Man­ches­ter City, you all know how I feel about Man City, I’m very grate­ful they looked after me very well. I did every­thing the best I could there.

“And then every­one here at Bar­ca. Every­one’s been incred­i­ble. It’s with­out doubt one of the best teams in the world. I’m very grateful.

“And then obvi­ous­ly the Argen­tin­ian nation­al team. I’m very grate­ful for every­one here. Peo­ple who worked with me. Also to my team-mates and most recent­ly those at Bar­ca. I think I always did my best to help them win.

“I want to thank my team­mates who helped me to grow. I don’t know what awaits me in the next life but I know there are loads of peo­ple who love me. And I’m grate­ful to the press that are here. Most of them have treat­ed me well! But no wor­ries, it’s their work. I will remem­ber all the amaz­ing things, so thank you all.”

Speak­ing to reporters, he would add: “I feel OK right now. Obvi­ous­ly the first two weeks were real­ly difficult.

“When they did the first phys­i­cal test on me in the clin­ic, the med­ical staff called me to tell me there was a big pos­si­bil­i­ty that I could­n’t keep play­ing. I tried to process it all. It was­n’t easy. I still process every­thing that the doc­tors told me straight up, ‘that’s enough.’ It took a few more days to process it all.

“Obvi­ous­ly it’s bet­ter hap­pen­ing now when I’m 33 rather than when I was younger.

“But like I said, I’m hap­py and proud of the career I’ve had. I’m for­tu­nate it has hap­pened to me now than rather than before. I’m hap­py for the career I’ve had. I think I can be hap­py. As I said, I think I did every­thing I could for myself and my clubs.”

Trib­utes have already poured in for a Pre­mier League great, with Pep Guardi­o­la in atten­dance at Camp Nou.

Joan Lapor­ta, the Barcelona pres­i­dent sit­ting along­side Aguero, said: “I’m here next to you. It’s as if of all the teams you’ve played for are right here next to me. Atleti­co Madrid, Inde­pen­di­ente, City, Argen­tin­ian FA. Span­ish foot­ball FA as well.

“Ser­gio I think as we just saw on the video, we are left with the joy and excite­ment of what you could have been here at Bar­ca. You have all our sup­port and any­thing you need from your con­di­tion you can have it.

“For all the clubs, every­where you’ve played, you’ve achieved so much. The friend­ships you’ve made.

“We would have liked you to come here ear­li­er and now a new jour­ney awaits and I hope that it would be just as suc­cess­ful and we wish you all the best, Sergio.”

Man­ches­ter City tweet­ed: “King Kun. Every­one at Man­ches­ter City would like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to thank Ser­gio Aguero for his incred­i­ble con­tri­bu­tion to our suc­cess over the last decade and wish him well in his retirement.”

Aguero’s for­mer Man City boss Rober­to Manci­ni sent his well-wish­es at an award cer­e­mo­ny in Italy recently.

“I’m very sor­ry, I wish him the best of things,” Manci­ni said at the Gran Gala Gazzetta Awards. “I’m so sor­ry to see him leav­ing so soon.
“I want­ed him at City, he’s the for­eign­er with the high­est goal aver­age in Eng­land. I’m sor­ry he has to leave foot­ball so soon.”

In five games at Barcelona, Aguero notched just one goal for the Blau­grana — but in trade­mark fash­ion, it did come in the biggest game of all as he notched in El Cla­si­co — albeit a con­so­la­tion as Real Madrid claimed a 2–1 win.

Aguero played 101 times for his coun­try dur­ing a 15-year inter­na­tion­al career, scor­ing 41 goals.