Ex-Real Madrid and AC Milan star Antonio Cassano retires AGAIN aged 36
The former Italian international has hung up his boots for the third time and this time he reckons there is no way back
ANTONIO CASSANO has again retired from football admitting that he no longer has the "mentality to train consistently".
The 36-year-old striker has hung up his boots for the third time after linking up with Serie C minnows Virtus Entella to try and revive his career more than two years after he last played.
The former Roma, AC Milan and Real Madrid forward had been without a club since a brief pre-season training stint with Verona in July 2017, and last played an official league game in May 2016 for Sampdoria.
In a career spanning nearly 20 years, Cassano scored 139 goals and provided 91 assists in 515 competitive games at all levels.
Cassano, who won 39 caps for Italy, had agreed to train with Entella without signing a contract but has decided to call time on his playing career again.
In a statement, Cassano said: "Over the last few days of training, I realised that I no longer have the mentality to train consistently.
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"In order to play football, you need passion and talent, but above all determination and at this moment I have other priorities.
"Now the second half of my life begins. I am curious and fired up to prove first of all to myself that I can do good things even without the help of my feet."
Cassano started his career at Bari and joined Roma in 2001 aged 19 for £26million, making him the world's most expensive teenager.
He fell out with then Roma boss Fabio Capello telling him: "You're a piece of s***, you're more fake than Monopoly money."
He made the extraordinary claim of sleeping with up to 700 women by the time he was 25, adding that he often "played a great match after having sex".