West Brom striker Nicolas Anelka has reportedly retired from football with immediate effect after walking out on a training session with the Midlands club, according to Team Talk The former Chelsea striker only joined the Baggies last month after leaving Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua, and put in some impressive performances during pre-season, scoring seven goals. However, the 34-year-old looked jaded in West Brom's 1-0 home defeat to Southampton at the weekend and it now appears the Frenchman has decided to call time on his storied career, though his club are yet to confirm this. Instead, they have released a brief statement on their official website confirming that he will miss Saturday's game against Everton. The short message read:
"West Bromwich Albion can confirm that Nicolas Anelka will not be involved in Saturday's game at Everton. "The club have excused the striker from club duty on compassionate grounds."
Anelka played for some of European football's best clubs throughout a 17-year career, such as Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and briefly Juventus. He was also capped 69 times by France but his international career ended in disgrace in 2010 after picking up an eighteen-game ban from the French Football Federation for missing a disciplinary hearing. The highlights of his career included a Premier League title win with Arsenal in 1998, winning the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2000, and winning Serie A with Juventus last season.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
