Goran Pandev, a footballer from North Macedonia, is the all-time leading scorer for his country’s national team. On Thursday, at the age of 39, Pandev announced his retirement from the sport after a career that spanned more than two decades.
“When I think about it now, it doesn’t seem real… “It has been an amazing journey,” Pandev posted on his Instagram account after the trip. “A stunning chapter comes to a close… I travel through life with an immense amount of emotional baggage… I am glad that we were able to discuss these together (with you),” he went on to say.
Pandev joined Inter Milan when he was just 18 years old and has played the majority of his club football career in Italy. He is best known for having previously played for Lazio, Naples, Galatasaray, and Genoa before finishing his career with a brief stint at Parma, where he made 11 appearances in Serie B.
In 2010, the Nerazzurri won the Serie A championship, the Coppa Italia, the Champions League, the Italian Super Cup, and the Club World Cup. The beautiful left-hander played a role in the Nerazzurri’s unprecedented quintuple that year.
Pandev has been without a club since the end of the previous season, but in his native North Macedonia, where he is the all-time leading scorer for the club with 38 goals scored in 122 games, he is revered as a hero. Pandev has the most international caps of any player in the club’s history. The national squad
After scoring the game-winning goal in the critical match against Georgia in the play-off for North Macedonia’s qualification to the European Championships the previous summer, the country’s captain led the Red Lynx to their very first participation on the European stage.
