Manchester, July 3 (IANS) Veteran Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta on Sunday announced his retirement from football and said that he decided to join the coaching staff of his countryman Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Arteta, who bid farewell to Arsenal on June 30, 2016, said through his Twitter account that "the opportunity to join Pep Guardiola and his team was an amazing opportunity for me and I am incredibly excited for the future", according to Efe.
"Following recent media speculation surrounding my future I can confirm that I will be leaving Arsenal and retiring from playing to take up a coaching position at Manchester City," he said.
Arteta, who played 150 games with Arsenal in which he scored 17 goals, added: "I've enjoyed an amazing five years at Arsenal and it's been an honour and a privilege to captain such a great club.
"Coaching has always been something I've been keen to go in to. And over the past few years I've worked hard off the pitch as well as on it to develop my skills in order to put me in a position to be able to pursue a coaching role once I finished playing," Arteta said.
