Toby Alderweireld is hanging up his boots after this season. The 127-time Red Devil said this in a conversation with VTM News. “Sometimes I look forward to my retirement, but on the other hand I also want to accelerate with Antwerp. I will do that for another six months.”
First he has to achieve something with Antwerp, but in June it will be irrevocably over and he wants to slow down a bit. Then Toby Alderweireld ends his career as a professional footballer. For the defender, who will be 36 at the end of next season, it is time to enjoy a more carefree life.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m combining too much, even though at 35 I know my own body. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have had the same career if I had tried to maintain this rhythm ten years ago. I’m really exhausted in the evening. I regularly fall asleep around a quarter after nine,” he said in the recently published book In the locker room.
Alderweireld is already busy with his career after football. Since September he has been working as an analyst for TV channel VTM at matches in the Champions League and the Red Devils. He also has his own drinks brand, MM Antverpia. Maybe he really will stay in football. Antwerp is toying with the idea of offering him a new role within the club, but this is not yet concrete.
Panic attacks
Alderweireld previously ended his international career. That decision was prompted by panic attacks from which the former Red Devil suffers. Alderweireld speaks about this for the first time in the broadcast of the VRT1 program The housewhich will air on Tuesday.
The central defender played 127 times for Belgium and was honored during last Thursday’s home match against Italy. He made his debut as a footballer in January 2009 with Ajax. In the past sixteen years he also played for Atlético Madrid, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Al-Duhail. Since 2022, he has been playing in our country for Antwerp, which he shot to the title in his first season with a goal in injury time on the last match day.
