Former Germany striker Neuville retires

Former Germany striker Oliver Neuville announced on Tuesday that he has decided to retire from football at the age of 37, after German second division side Arminia Bielefeld terminated his contract.

“It’s definitively over. I’ve been thinking about it for a while already but that isn’t how I hoped it would happen. I hoped to play for longer,” Neuville told the website of German daily Bild.

Neuville, who scored 10 goals in 69 international games, joined Bielefeld last summer after a six-year stint at Borussia Moenchengladbach.

The Swiss-born striker, who played for Bayer Leverkusen between 1999 and 2004, had made nine appearances in the German second tier and scored two goals.

He represented Germany at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and was a member of the squad that finished runners-up to Spain at the 2008 European Championship.