The former German national team striker, Mike Hanke, announced on Wednesday that he would be retiring from football.
"I thought about it in the last six weeks but I do not feel the need to play football. I feel comfortable without it," the 31- year-old striker, who played nearly twelve years in the Bundesliga, told Sky Sports News Deutschland in an interview.
Hanke requested his contract with Chinese side Guizhou Renhe to be terminated in October and returned to Germany. He wanted to see if any clubs would take him back in his home country, but he has now decided to call it quits.
He brought his career to an end now, saying he'd rather close the football playing chapter of his career at this moment, "than at 35 or 36 when all my bones are damaged."
Having started at Schalke back in 2002, Hanke went on to turn out for Wolfsburg, Hannover, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Freiburg. Overall, he scored 54 goals in 284 appearances in the Bundesliga and added a further goal with his twelve outings for the German national team.