Spain star Marcos Llorente abruptly retires from national team at just 31 after World Cup glory

The Atlético de Madrid player surprises everyone with his farewell to La Roja

Marcos Llorente announced this Thursday his definitive retirement from the Spanish national team. After being crowned world champion at the last World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the Atlético de Madrid player has decided to bring his time with the national team to a close.

At 31 years old, the Madrid-born footballer brings his international career to a close with 27 caps, a European Championship and two World Cups behind him. Since his debut against the Netherlands in 2020 with Luis Enrique on the bench, Llorente became a regular for La Roja at right-back, the position he started in during the opening match of the last World Cup and which he eventually relinquished due to competition from Pedro Porro.

Marcos Llorente has gone through three of the national team's levels: under-19, under-21, and the senior side. The Madrid-born player's first debut with Spain came in Katwijk aan Zee, in a friendly against the Dutch national team. It was with De la Fuente as coach of a team that also included Grimaldo, and it ended in a 1-2 victory. With the senior side, it was Luis Enrique who opened the door for him: a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands at the Amsterdam Arena.

Although Llorente was left out of the last European Championship, where De la Fuente chose Carvajal and Jesús Navas as right-backs, the Madrid native regained his place in the national team to go to the World Cup, where he would end up being crowned champion and putting the finishing touch on a short but successful career with the national team.

His farewell letter:

After much thought, I have decided to close this chapter with the National Team.

I am aware that I am still young and that, perhaps, if I kept doing things well, I would still have years left to keep playing in this shirt.

I know many of you won’t understand it and, surely, I wouldn’t have understood it from the outside either. But it is a personal decision, very carefully considered and, above all, deeply felt.

Regardless of whether I had gone to the World Cup or not, or whether we had won or not, I had already made this decision.

I can only be infinitely grateful to all the people I have crossed paths with over these years and who have made it possible for my family and me to experience unique and unforgettable moments.

I keep everything we experienced with me, but, above all, these last 52 days. With a wonderful group that fought until the very end to leave Spain at the very top. And that is exactly what it did. It has been an honor to represent my country and be part of this story. Thank you for everything. A hug to everyone.