Real Madrid goalkeeper announced his retirement from professional football

Champion of the Champions League and Copa del Rey with the Merengue squad, the Galician opted to hang up his boots after being left without a team since leaving Rayo Vallecano in the summer. “I played little at Rayo and it was time to say goodbye and do other things that I really wanted to do after so many years as a professional, like being with my family,” he noted at the press conference organized by the newspaper El Progreso.

During Iker Casillas' last seasons with Real Madrid, Diego López was the first option in goal for both José Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, although the hierarchy of the world champion with the Spanish National Team in the cup competitions was respected. Likewise, Diego López announced that his future will continue to be linked to the playing fields, although no longer as a footballer but as a technical director, a profession for which he is already preparing.

“I am at the second level, I have goalkeepers and sports management. The next few years will be important to see what my body asks of me and if any club is interested in me,” he revealed. “Training deadlines must be met because few new coaches have the opportunity to train a great team from the first moment,” concluded Diego López. After seven days of vacation, the Real Madrid players will return to training under the orders of technical director Carlo Ancelotti, who will be waiting to know how many injured players he will be able to recover.

And the merengue team closed 2023 with eight casualties, a figure that should begin to reduce in view of the first match of 2024, which will be the visit of Javier Aguirre's Mallorca to the New Santiago Bernabéu. In the first training session after the Christmas break, Brazilian Vinícius Júnior, Dani Carvajal and Frenchmen Ferland Mendy and Eduardo Camavinga are expected to do some work on the pitch.

What's next for Diego Lopez?

Of them, those with the best chance of reaching the match against Mallorca are Carvajal and Mendy, since Vinícius and Camavinga still have recovery ahead of them and work is being done to speed up the options for them to be part of the expedition of players available for the dispute of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia from January 10 to 14. On the other hand, the Belgian Thibaut Courtois, the Brazilian Éder Militão and the Austrian David Alaba are long-term absent due to their respective knee injuries, while the Turkish Arda Güler continues with his preparation to return to the fields after suffering three injuries since he arrived at Real Madrid in the summer from Fenerbahçe, so caution will be taken with his debut.