Pepe’s retirement has brought to an end to his professional football career, 23 years after making his senior debut.
Pepe Calls Time on Glistening Career
Portuguese Defender Hangs Up Boots After Over Two Decades
41-year old Pepe, who began his senior career with Maritimo in his native Portugal back in 2001, posted on Instagram this afternoon a snippet of a video which sees a silhouette of him walking with the Euros trophy in his hand. The post is captioned “Obrigado” which translates to “thanks”.
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The full video, which can be found on his Youtube channel, begins with shots of a dark room with all the trophies which he has won in his career sat on small plinths before the legendary centre-back speaks at length on his time as a player with clips of his playing days on in the background.
One of the Greatest Players of His Generation
The central defender moved to Porto from Maritimo in 2004 and he quickly established himself as one of the best around, making 89 appearances, winning two league titles and a Taca de Portugal before Real Madrid snapped him up in 2007.
Across Pepe’s time at the Santiago Bernabeu, he formed incredible partnerships with Sergio Ramos and compatriot Ricardo Carvalho, as he and the former rapidly became one of the most feared central defensive duos in the world, in no small part thanks to their overly aggressive and no-nonsense nature. Together, Pepe and Ramos made a combined 1005 Real appearances, winning a host of honours and cementing their legacies as the best in class.
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Pepe left Real in 2017 for Besiktas, where he stayed for two seasons before making a memorable return to Porto in 2019, going on to make a further 201 appearances for the club, claiming two more league titles and four further Taca de Portugals.
His international career, meanwhile, speaks for itself as he stands third on his nation’s all-time caps list with 142, the most from a defender in A Seleção das Quinas history, with Joao Moutinho and Cristiano Ronaldo the only two eclipsing his total.
The Euro 2016 Final victory over France was an added bonus to what was at the time an already stacked trophy cabinet for Pepe. Nobody could have imagined at the time that he would still be leading the Portugal backline out at Euro 2024, as he produced one of the great veteran tournament performances with Roberto Martinez’s side getting to the quarter-finals, losing to France on penalties.
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The images of Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo embracing following the defeat to France were symbolic of the pair’s journey together for both club and country and after the defender’s performances this summer, you’d have backed him to go again in 2024/25.
However, all good things must come to an end and Pepe’s retirement away from football is one of these.
