Spain’s Marcos Llorente has announced his International retirement aged only 31 after the World Cup win. The midfielder made 27 appearances for La Roja after making his senior debut under Luis Enrique in November 2020 and represented his country at Euro 2020 and two World Cups.

The 31-year-old recently made three appearances for Spain in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup. He started for the team against Cape Verde and Uruguay and then came off the bench against France in the semifinal win.

“After giving it a lot of thought, I have decided to bring my time with the national team to an end,” Llorente said in a post on Instagram.

“I am aware that I am still young and that, perhaps, if I continued doing things well, I would still have years ahead of me to keep playing in this shirt.”

“Regardless of whether I would have gone to the World Cup or not, or whether we would have won it or not, I had already made this decision,” he added.

“I know that many of you will not understand it and, surely, I would not have understood it either from the outside. But it is a personal decision, one I have thought about very carefully and, above all, one that is very heartfelt.”

Llorente said he didn’t want to announce his retirement when he would have been struggling on the pitch.

“I won’t be one of those [players] who retires because they can’t continue physically,” he said in a Q&A for followers on social media.

“Before that, everything that football involves will no longer compensate me … The only thing that excites me [in football] is winning the Champions League with Atletico.”

“My life doesn’t revolve around football,” Llorente added. “It revolves around my health.”