Former Barcelona and United keeper Valdes anounces retirement from football and deletes social media accounts to focus on his family life- Victor Valdes has announced his retirement from football on New Year's Day
- The former Barcelona goalkeeper also deleted all of his social media accounts
- The 35-year-old wants to now focus on his family after hanging up his gloves
- Valdes enjoyed a stellar career with Barcelona and the Spanish national team
By Sam Mcevoy For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 11:10 GMT, 3 January 2018 | UPDATED: 11:21 GMT, 3 January 2018
Former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes has retired from football and has deleted all of his social media accounts. The decision came on New Year's Day as the 35-year-old revealed he now wants to focus on his family following his decision to hang up his gloves. Valdes, who enjoyed a stellar career with Barcelona and the Spanish national team but has been without a club after leaving Middlesbrough in May last year. The Spaniard reportedly had offers to continue his career, which featured unsuccessful spells at Manchester United and Standard Liege.
Despite this, the Spanish keeper took to social media one final time to say 'thanks for everything' before deleting his twitter and Instagram accounts.
And Valdes is a man of his word after he announced in 2015 that he would delete his social media accounts once his playing days came to an end to focus on his family.
He told RAC1: 'When the light goes out someday, then it will go out and I'll be with my children, teaching them about life.
'But I hope that when the light does go out, it will be hard to find me.'
It remains to be seen whether Valdes will return to football in some capacity.
Valdes' most successful part of his career came at Barcelona, where he won the Spanish league title six times, the Champions League three times and the Copa del Rey twice in his 12 years at the club.
The goalkeeper also helped the Catalan giants to their historic treble in 2009, with Barcelona being the first Spanish team to do so.
The 35-year-old was prolific when on international duty after helping Spain win the World Cup in 2010 and then the UEFA European Championship two years later.
Valdes left the Camp Nou after persistent knee problems but left his mark as one of the club's greatest goalkeepers.
He then completed his move to Man United in 2014 but struggled to replicate the success he had in Spain.
The Spaniard left the Red Devils two years later after having a difficult relationship with Louis van Gaal before ending his career with Middlesbrough.
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