Petr Cech announces retirement from international play

If you’re like me, pretty much any time you see the word “retirement” around an athlete’s name where you weren’t expecting it, you freak out a little bit. That’s why when I saw this tweet this morning, it took me a brief moment to pull myself back together.

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to be scrambling for a goalkeeper this summer* – Petr Cech is not retiring altogether, only from Czech Republic national team duty.

*Well, I guess we could pretty easily just recall Wojciech Szczesny and we’d be fine, but allow me my artistic license please.

At 34, Cech is getting up there, so a national team retirement makes a lot of sense. He’s also made 121 appearances for them, more than any other player in the nation’s history. That’s pretty good!

Anyway, congratulations to Petr for an amazing career. Hopefully having interlulls off now will be a benefit next season.