GLEN JOHNSON HAS officially called time on his 16-year professional career today.
The 34-year-old defender was on the books at Stoke City last season, but departed in the summer following their relegation from the Premier League.
Speaking on talkSPORT this morning, the former England international — capped 54 times — took the opportunity to announce his retirement.
“Today is the day I’m officially saying I’ve retired,” Johnson told Jim White.
“I knew halfway through last season I was going to call it a day. I always wanted to retire at an age where my body still felt good.
“Every player knows when their time is up. Mentally, I always wanted to stop quite young and also you can’t always play the game the way you want to play the game when you’re 34.”
A youth product of West Ham, the full-back made his Premier League debut for the Hammers in January 2003 before earning a £6million move to Chelsea later that year as the first signing of the Roman Abramovich era.
Johnson won the Premier League title and the League Cup under Jose Mourinho in 2005 and would go on to lift the FA Cup with Portsmouth three years later.
In 2009, Liverpool paid Pompey a reported £18.5m for his services and Johnson made 200 appearances for the Reds over six years — adding another League Cup to his medal haul.
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