Goodbye violent bird! Official: Former Brazilian international Paulinho announces retirement

Beijing time on September 8, former Brazilian international Paulinho announced his retirement on his personal social media, announcing the end of his playing career.

The 36-year-old former midfielder announced his retirement through a social media post. In the retirement video, Paulinho said, "(Retirement) is difficult for me to say. My name is José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Junior, 36 years old, and now a former professional football player." Paulinho said at the beginning of the video.

"I am a lucky and privileged person. My career has had an amazing development and process in the past 30 years. The lawn is my home, and I am grateful for my achievements. I am very persistent, and I persist because I know there are no two ways, and my only heart is football." He added.

(Note: This video started out in vertical format and then changed to horizontal format. The original video was meant to symbolize the transformation of Paulinho's jersey number "8" into the "♾️infinity" symbol.)

"In addition to participating in two World Cups during my time with Barcelona, ​​I've been honored to win multiple championships and win important things in my career. I left a great legacy. In my last game for Corinthians, facing 45,000 Corinthians fans, I felt that this would be my last game and it couldn't be better." Paulinho burst into tears when he got emotional.

"Playing for the Brazilian national team is the greatest honor of my career. Nothing can compare to the pride I felt when I learned that I was included in the Brazilian World Cup squad." Paulinho said at the end, "I want to thank all the teams I have played for in my career, FC Vilnius, Corinthians, Tottenham Hotspur, Guangzhou Evergrande, Barcelona, ​​Jeddah National and many more. It is you who made my football career complete. Thank you and goodbye."

The 36-year-old Paulinho started his career with FC Vilnius and reached his first professional peak in Corinthians. He then played for Tottenham Hotspur, Guangzhou Evergrande, Barcelona and other teams. During his five years with Guangzhou Evergrande, he played 176 games for the team, scored 75 goals, made 29 assists, and won 1 Asian Champions League, 4 Chinese Super Leagues, 1 FA Cup and 2 Super Cups. In the Brazilian national team, Paulinho participated in the World Cup twice with the team in 2014 and 2018, and won the Confederations Cup with the Brazilian team in 2013.