Several news agencies this morning are reporting the shock retirement from football of 1.FC Gesundbrunnen's right winger S------- G-------.
Speculation has been rife for weeks now that G-------, 24, never sufficiently recovered from an ankle injury sustained in June. As recently as last Sunday, G------ was forced to leave the field of play for treatment on his troublesome left ankle. Although he later rejoined play, he was clearly a couple of yards off the pace of the game and was lacking his usual dynamism and aggression as his team slumped to a last-minute defeat.
Rumours that G------- was responsible for dressing-room disagreements were never officially confirmed or denied by the 1.FC GSB board of management, although a number of contacts close to G-------are believed to be upset at the effect that his relationship with another member of the unisex squad have had on team morale. Whether his retirement can restore dressing-room unity remains to be seen.
G------- retires with the incredible record of having scored in every single 1.FC GSB game that he appeared in, a record stretching back as far as the foundation of the club in May 2008. Despite excellent form at club level, he has been repeatedly snubbed by new Republic of Ireland boss, Giovanni Trapattoni. The final nail in the coffin of G-------'s non-existant international career came in August, as he called Trapattoni "a wrinkly old Milanista bastard".
Reporters have been camped around G-------'s central Berlin home all morning, desperate for a glimpse of the controversial star despite there being rumours that he has gone to Lithuania to escape the media scrum.
Hopes remain, however, that G-------is simply taking time out to recover fully from his injury and will return in an egomaniacal blaze of glory in the New Year, especially since a Lufthansa employee recently leaked that G-------will be travelling to India in the near future, possibly to experiment with yoga or voodoo in an attempt to overcome his injury nightmare.
