On Friday, German football captain and Manchester United F.C. midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger announced retirement from international football.
Debuting in 2004, Schweinsteiger has won 120 international caps, Germany's fourth all time most capped player. He was part of the German squad for the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament in France  and became the first German to play eighteen Euro matches, surpassing the fourteen-match record of Philip Lahm. Schweinsteiger has played in four Euro tournaments — 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016.
Schweinsteiger said, "I have asked the national team coach to not consider me for Germany selection in future, as I would like to step down from the national team. I would like to thank the fans, the team, the DFB, the coaches and the national team’s backroom staff." 
Schweinsteiger won the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He has featured in three FIFA World Cup tournaments — in 2006, 2010 and 2014. He has played 38 matches in major international tournaments, which is a world record. Schweinsteiger's last match in Germany's jersey ended in a 2–0 defeat against France in the Euro 2016 semi-final.
After Schweinsteiger announced his retirement, his former Bayern Munich teammate and German player Thomas Müller tweeted, "Thanks for 120 international caps with the @DFB_Team [German Team] and many great and shared hours with the national team" .

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!
Share this: 






This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Schweinsteiger announces retirement from international football