Ilkay Gündogan has announced his retirement from international football with Germany after captaining his nation at their home European Championship earlier this summer.
The Barcelona midfielder, 33, scored 19 goals in 82 appearances for his country. He announced his decision on social media yesterday.
“After a few weeks of consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to end my national team career,” he wrote.
“I look back with great pride on 82 international matches for my home country — a number I could never have dreamed of when I made my debut for the senior national team in 2011.
“My highlight was definitely the huge honour of being able to lead the team as captain at our home European Championship last summer!
After all these years, we finally managed to make the nation proud again — I’m very happy that I was able to play a part in that.
“But even before the tournament, I felt a certain tiredness in my body and also in my head, which made me think. And the number of games at club and national level is not coming down..
