38-year-old Mertens officially announced his retirement at the music festival, and has played 397 times for Naples and scored 148 goals

At August 24, at the Marktrock Music Festival held in Leuven, Naples and Belgian legend Mertens personally announced his retirement.

The 38-year-old Belgian striker finally announced the end of his career in person. As early as the past few months, rumors about his retirement have been circulating, and even he hinted in a leaked video, but at the festival, Mertens announced loudly among the crowd: "I retired! I ended my football career!"

In the noisy Vismarkt Square, Mertens suddenly announced this shocking news, saying, "I have retired and no longer played football. It's time to meet new challenges." After that, he sat in a rubber boat and was lifted up high by the crowd.

is quite special, but in fact everyone has a premonition. After leaving Galatasaray at the end of May, speculation began to be made on Mertens's plans. Although his contract with the club has ended, he himself did not immediately express whether to retire. A few weeks ago, when videos were leaked and he mentioned that he might retire, speculation from the outside world further heated up. Now, all this has finally been confirmed.

Murtens has a very brilliant career. He played for Naples from 2013 to 2022, making 397 appearances and scoring 148 goals to this day, still the club's top scorer in history, winning the 2014 and 2020 Italian Cups.

In 2022, Mertens joined Galatasaray, making 136 appearances, contributing 25 goals and 44 assists, and together with the team, he won three Turkish Premier League championships and one cup championship.

Before joining Naples, Mertens played in the Dutch League, played for AGOVV, Utrecht and Eindhoven and performed well, gradually becoming the Belgian national team.

Murtens was selected for the Belgian national team for the first time at the age of 23, playing for the national team in 109 games, scoring 21 goals and sending 33 assists.