Croatian full-back Sime Vrsaljko retires at just 31 years of age

Croatian full-back Sime Vrsaljko has retired from professional football at 31. The defender most prominently featured for Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Sassuolo. He last played for Olympiacos in Greece between July and January 2022 before leaving them. 

Injuries played a big part in hindering his progress, and he failed to establish himself as a starter for the Rojiblancos. He made over a 100 appearances for them, in spite of his injury struggles. 

Sime Vrsaljko retires from football at 31 

His best performance for Atletico Madrid came in his final season with them. But in spite of that, he wasn’t offered a renewal by the club. With Olympiacos, things didn’t play out as expected as he only made nine appearances, playing 665 minutes over half the season. 

His contract was eventually terminated by the club, and he hasn’t been able to get back to playing since. Sime Vrsaljko achieved a significant amount of success playing for the Croatian national team, earning 52 caps while reaching the finals of the 2018 World Cup with them. 

Now, he has officially decided to end his journey with club football as well. He joins Mesut Ozil and Bojan as the players to have announced their retirement almost all together.