World Cup winner Llorente retires from Spain team at 31

Spanish footballer Marcos Llorente has announced his retirement from the national team at the age of 31, following Spain's World Cup victory in July. The news came as a surprise in a social media post shared on Thursday. Llorente expressed that after much contemplation, he decided to end his time with the national team.

During the World Cup, Llorente played as right back for Spain, starting two group games but only featuring for six minutes in the remaining matches. He came on as a substitute for Spain's semi-final win against France. Llorente stated that even though he is still young, he believes that if he continued to perform well, he would still have years left in his career. He acknowledged that many people may not understand his decision, even though he himself might not have understood it initially.

Llorente has represented Atletico Madrid throughout his career, with two Champions League titles and a La Liga title to his name. He began his career at Real Madrid before moving to Atletico in 2019. In total, Llorente has 27 caps for Spain over a six-year international career. He expressed that regardless of whether he had participated in the World Cup or if Spain had won or not, the decision was already made from the heart.

Llorente cherishes the experiences he had during his time with the national team, particularly the last 52 days spent with a group of players who fought until the very end to bring Spain to the top.