MADRID, 4 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Real Madrid basketball player and the Spanish team Rudy Fernández, winner of two World Cups, four Eurobaskets, two Olympic silver medals and three Euroleagues, announced this Thursday his retirement at the professional level at the end of this season, after more than two decades of career.
“Retirement is a difficult and shocking word when you hear it, but it is true that a moment in my career is coming where I think I am old enough, there are many years as a professional,” acknowledged the player, who turns 39 today. , at a press conference, before this Friday’s Euroleague duel against Baskonia.
The player already said that the pre-Olympic and the Games, if Sergio Scariolo’s team qualifies, would be his last tournament with the national team – with which he has accumulated 255 games – and now he also reveals that he is leaving professional basketball. “It is clear that this is ending, but there are still a few months left to try to help with whatever they ask of me and, above all, to enjoy my teammates,” said the Spaniard.
The guard will leave professional basketball with a record, so far, of two World Cups (2006 and 2019), four European Championships (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022), a continental silver (2007), a bronze in the Eurobasket (2013) , two Olympic silver medals (2008 and 2012) and an Olympic bronze (2016), with the national team.
While at the club level, he lifted a Copa del Rey (2008) with Joventut de Badalona, a club in which he debuted in 2003, before beginning his golden stage at Real Madrid in 2012, winning six other Cups (2014, 2015 , 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2024), three Euroleagues (2015, 2018 and 2023), six Leagues (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022), and nine Spanish Super Cups (2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023).
“Unfortunately, I have had injuries. When I had the third back operation they told me that I could spend three or at most four more years playing at a professional level and with the work of the Real Madrid physios I have been able to live many more years, many successes more with my teammates,” he celebrated before the media.
Finally, he said he felt “privileged” to “be able to have reached this point of being a player” who feels “very important within this team dynamic.”