Legendary French winger, "The King of Allianz Arena" Franck Ribery, announced his retirement from professional football on Friday.

"The ball stops. The feelings inside me do not. Der Ball ruht. Die Gefühle in mir nicht. Le ballon s'arrette mais pas mes sentiments pour lui. Il pallone si ferma. Le emozioni dentro di me, no. Thanks to everyone for this great adventure," Ribery posted on Twitter.

Having joined Serie A's Salernitana in September 2021, Ribery played 25 games for the club and had three assists. He only made two appearances for them during the 2022-23 season due to injuries, one in the league game against Roma in August, the other in the Coppa Italia game against Parma, which was also in August.

Having played for more than eight clubs in his career, Ribery reached his prime during the 12 seasons with the Bundesliga's Bayern Munich between 2007 and 2019. He scored 124 goals and 182 assists in 425 games for the German powerhouse, helping them win nine Bundesliga championships, six DFB-Pokal titles, four DFL-Supercup championships, one UEFA Champions League title, one UEFA Super Cup championship and one FIFA Club World Cup title.

Ribery played 81 games for the French national team, scoring 16 goals. He was a member of the squad that made the FIFA World Cup final in Germany in 2006.

When Arjen Robben joined Bayern from Real Madrid in 2009, he and Ribery combined to spend a decade as the world's best pair of wingers. Compared with Robben, whose speed and penetration often took more than two defenders to contain, Ribery had more delicate skills. If Robben was a keen-edged blade swung from the wing into the box in the blink of an eye, Ribery was the world’s top decision-maker during one quick moment.

The speed of the pair made them two powerful bullets from the wings during a counter attack. Moreover, Ribery and Robben are able to switch sides whenever they wanted, and so were able to create scoring opportunities out of nothing. Bayern had many first-class players during those years – Thomas Muller, Toni Kroos, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gomez and Robert Lewandowski to name a few – but Ribery and Robben, nicknamed "The Robbery" were always been the team's main form of offensive.