Sports
Gabon Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Steps Down From International Football
(CTN News) – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has retired from international soccer, the Gabon federation announced Wednesday.
Despite playing for Gabon for 13 years, the Barcelona striker and captain of the national team sent the federation a letter to inform it of his decision.
The Gabon football federation published parts of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s letter, where he thanked the people of Gabon, his coaches, teammates, and his father, who had also played for Gabon in the 1980s and 1990s.
I hope I have been able to make him proud by wearing our colors,” Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang wrote in the letter he sent.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Career
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32, played 72 times for Gabon and has scored 30 goals in his career. To equal its best performance in international soccer, Gabon reached the quarterfinals of the 2012 African Cup of Nations with Aubameyang at the center of the team.
Aubemeyang’s last tournament with Gabon was a disappointment, however, as he contracted COVID-19 at the start of the African Cup in Cameroon and had to withdraw from the competition due to heart lesions.
Gabon will begin its qualifying campaign for next year’s African Cup in Ivory Coast two weeks after announcing his retirement from international football.