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Even in their current chaotic state, when Barcelona come calling, very few active players are able to resist the allure of the Catalan giants. The same goes, it seems, for recently retired players, too, as Wojciech Szczesny has made a U-turn on the decision he made in August to hang up his boots (and gloves) and sign a one-year deal with Barca following the news of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s season-ending injury.
Szczesny endured a tumultuous summer, as he was first let go by Juventus at the end of his contract, though he was strongly linked with a move to join Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr in the weeks that followed. However, after that switch to Saudi Arabia never materialised, the 34-year-old announced that his playing days were over, saying in a statement: “I gave the game 18 years of my life, everyday, without excuses. Today, although my body still feels ready for challenges, my heart is not there anymore. I feel that right now it is time to give all of my attention to my family.”
Joining a Barca team who are playing some scintillating football under new manager Hansi Flick is, though, an offer that has been too good for ex-Arsenal shot-stopper Szczesny to turn down, and he will step into Ter Stegen’s shoes and become the starter between the sticks for the remainder of the campaign.
He is not, however, the first player to renege on their retirement plans and return to the pitch after previously stating that their time was done. GOAL runs through some of the most famous names to have come out of retirement to resume their playing careers…
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Getty Images SportPaul Scholes
Most players who come out of retirement do so with some amount of fanfare, with fans able to build their anticipation levels as they wait to see their former heroes back in action. In the case of Paul Scholes, however, not even his Manchester United team-mates knew he had made himself available once more when he arrived to take part in the Manchester Derby of January 2012.
The England midfielder had left the game at the end of the previous campaign, but just over six months later, he and Sir Alex Ferguson shocked the world when Scholes was named on the bench at the Etihad Stadium. He went on to make 21 appearances through the rest of the campaign, and was then part of the United squad that won the Premier League title back the following year before he and Ferguson both retired for good at the same time.
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Getty ImagesMarc Overmars
There are times when former players appear in testimonials or legends games and there will be fans who insist that ‘they’ve still got it’ as they watch their heroes of the past take part in what are usually slow-tempo and good-natured affairs. Few, though, truly believe that these retirees could still cut it at the highest level.
Marc Overmars is an outlier, though. Having been forced into retirement at the age of 31 due to a knee injury, the ex-Arsenal and Barcelona winger took part in Jaap Stam’s testimonial match four years later. So impressive was his performance that he received offers from a number of clubs in both the Netherlands and Germany and, after initially rejecting them all, Overmars subsequently agreed to resume his career with Go Ahead Eagles in 2008.
He made 24 league appearances in the Dutch second division over the course of the campaign, but his troublesome knee began to bother him once more, so Overmars decided to call it quits for good at the end of the season.
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Getty Images SportLandon Donovan
Even for those who come out of retirement, it’s almost always a one-time thing. Landon Donovan, however, just couldn’t resist the allure of returning to the field, and thus resumed his career on two separate occasions following his initial retirement.
Donovan, regarded as one of the greatest American soccer players of all-time – if not the greatest – initially hung up his boots in 2014, but after his beloved LA Galaxy lost three players to injury, including Steven Gerrard, in a match that Donovan was working at as a pitchside analyst, he was asked to return by the club. The U.S. icon eventually agreed, and appeared in each of then Galaxy’s six remaining regular-season games, as well as their three playoff matches, scoring one goal.
Over a year later, Donovan was at it again, as he surprisingly signed a contract with Liga MX side Club Leon at the age of 36. His stint in Mexico only lasted five months, however, before he finally ended his career for good.
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Getty Images SportArjen Robben
After a glittering career that saw him represent Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Arjen Robben announced his retirement from football in the summer of 2019. However, just over a year later, he was back lacing up his boots for boyhood club FC Groningen in the Eredivisie.
Robben’s return didn’t go to plan, though. Just 28 minutes into his second debut for the club against another of his former sides, PSV, the Netherlands winger was forced off with an injury that would subsequently rule him out for almost seven months.
The veteran did manage to recover in time for the end of the season, and made a handful of appearances in the final weeks before bidding a final farewell to the game.
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Getty Images SportJens Lehmann
Somewhat ironically, it was an injury to Szczesny that played a role in one of his former team-mates coming out of retirement some 13 years ago. Jens Lehmann agreed to sign a rolling contract at Arsenal in March 2011 after Szczesny, Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone all picked up injuries, leaving Manuel Almunia as the Gunners’ only fit, senior shot-stopper.
Lehmann, who had announced his retirement nine months earlier after two seasons at Stuttgart, was only ever meant to sit on the bench in north London while working on his coaching badges. However, after Almunia suffered an injury in the warm-up ahead of a Premier League game with Blackpool a few weeks after Lehmann’s arrival, the German was pressed into action at the age of 41.
That proved to be his only appearance of his second spell at Arsenal, as Lehmann retired again at the end of the campaign.
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Hulton ArchiveJohan Cruyff
One of the greatest players of his or any other generation, Johan Cruyff had hoped to enjoy his relatively early retirement when he opted to call it a day at the age of 31 in 1978. However, just a few months later, he returned to the pitch after a pig-farming scam led to him losing the vast majority of the money he had made over the course of the previous decade.
Cruyff had already moved his family to the United States, and thus recommenced his career in the North American Soccer League (NASL) with the Los Angeles Aztecs. He was named NASL Player of the Year in his one and only year with the Aztecs before enjoying two separate spells with the Washington Diplomats that sandwiched a short-lived stint in the Spanish second division with Levante.
The legendary Dutchman then returned to boyhood club Ajax in 1981 and helped them win back-to-back league titles. The Amsterdam outfit, however, did not offer Cruyff a new contract, so in 1983 he joined Ajax’s arch-rivals, Feyenoord. He would help return the Eredivisie title to Rotterdam for the first time in over a decade in what proved to be his final season as a professional – one in which he was named Dutch Footballer of the Year at the age of 37.
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