Arsene Wenger is the latest sports personality to praise Steven Gerrard following his retirement from football at the age of 36.

The midfielder, who played for Liverpool his entire career except for 2016/16 when he spent his final year of being a footballer at LA Galaxy, was revered the world over. Although he ran into injury concerns and his legs started to go towards the end, he could still pick a pass, strike a ball and score from a free-kick with ease.

During Gerrard’s 17-year career in Liverpool, he appeared in a massive 690 games and racked up a total of 180 goals and 101 assists.

Fortunately for Arsenal, only six of those goals ever came against us.

In fact, Wenger believes that he could have gone on for four more years and even speculated that perhaps he has joint problems, leading him to retire early.

“For me he was a huge player who stops his career a bit surprisingly, because I thought he had two or three more years in his legs,” Wenger said ahead of Arsenal’s clash against Bournemouth.

“He had such a huge physical talent at the start that I thought he will play until 40. Maybe he has some joint problems, only he knows that.

“But overall, you can just salute a fantastic player who has shown that he had the qualities that every midfielder dreams to have. He could score goals, he could cross the field, he could shoot from distance, he could cross the ball, he could dribble, he had pace, he had commitment, motivation. It’s a massive player, Steven Gerrard. And on top of that, he was loyal to Liverpool. So that’s as well a quality that you don’t find a lot nowadays.”

I suppose when a footballer knows it’s over, it’s over and at least he would have taken home a healthy wage from LA Galaxy during his final year playing. I’m sure, although he’ll probably miss it, he knows what he’s doing.