Gonzalo Castro retires from football
Former VfB Stuttgart captain and five-times-capped German international Gonzalo Castro has opted to call it a career.
After 574 top flight appearances for Leverkusen, Dortmund, Stuttgart, and Arminia Bielefeld, Gonzalo Castro has opted to hang up his boots. The 35-year-old attacking midfielder, most recently released by Bielefeld following their relegation from the top flight, ha\d been without a club since July.
Castro began his professional footballing journey playing for academy clubs in and around his hometown of Wuppertal. Local powerhouse Bayer 04 Leverkusen picked him up in 1999 and he would go on to make 370 appearances across all competitions for the senior B04 side between 2004 and 2015.
The high-point of his professional career came in 2017 when he won the DFB Pokal whilst playing for Borussia Dortmund. The low-point was definitely the spring of 2021, when VfB Stuttgart opted not to renew the expiring contract of their then acting captain. Castro continued to train with Stuttgart for seven months until Arminia Bielefeld picked him up in December.
The veteran scored one goal and registered one assist for the DSC in the 2021/22 Rück-runde, but ultimately couldn't help Bielfeld avoid relegation. In a farewell to his fans on his instagram profile, Castro conveyed special thanks to Leverkusen for helping him rise. After thanking a whole host of others, he declared himself appreciative of the honor of turning his passion into his profession.
Special thanks were reserved for Leverkusen for aiding his rise in a separate post. Castro acknowledged that he could have thanked many others, but noted that he had always been "a man of few words and many yellow cards."
Unser ehemaliger Kapitän Gonzalo #Castro beendet seine Karriere. Alles Gute und vielen Dank für deinen Einsatz für den #VfB, Gonzo! 👋🏻⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/dFcKi7nuYe
— VfB Stuttgart (@VfB) September 16, 2022