Rooney, Ribery and Ibrahimovic lead the attack: Best XI of international retirees

As leagues around the world make way for international football, Ian Hawkey picks the best team of players who have made themselves unavailable for their national teams.

Wayne Rooney retired from international football last week, ruling himself out of contention for the 2018 World Cup in Russia next summer. Andy Rain / EPA

Wayne Rooney had been retired from international football for barely 24 hours when Gareth Southgate, the manager of an England for whom Rooney has scored more goals than anybody in history, suggested out loud he hoped the decision might be negotiable at some time in the medium-term future.

International retirement is like that, a vague concept, or in some cases, just regarded as plain "fake news".

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That is not to disregard Rooney’s honesty. Rather it is to take him at his word when he says nothing has thrilled him more than playing for and captaining his country. Because of that, Southgate hopes, he might be persuaded back, should England feel they need his knowhow, his goals come the World Cup finals in June.

This World Cup qualifying campaign, which enters a key phase over the next 10 days, has featured some big bold headlines about international retirement. Fourteen months ago, Lionel Messi announced he had quit the Argentina team, fed up with silver medals in so many finals. Cue panic, not least at Fifa headquarters.

A World Cup without Messi would be a World Cup diminished. Messi, 30, was talked back from his proposed exile and will hope his influence on the pitch can ease his country’s fears about their lowly position in the qualifying table this week.

Older players retire to seek respite from a busy calendar. That was David Villa’s thought when he announced that, having made himself Spain’s leading scorer in an era of two European championships and a World Cup triumph, he was stepping back. Fully three years later, aged 35, after a fulfilling successful late-career spell in America’s Major League Soccer (MLS), Villa has just been recalled.

Others will see in Villa’s resumed role with Spain an important shift in thinking. The MLS is gaining respect as a properly competitive environment, where high standards can be maintained. If it’s good enough for Spain then it might be for, say, Italy.

Antonio Conte, Italy’s manager until last year, left out the MLS players Andrea Pirlo and Sebastian Giovinco from his Euro 2016 squad and said he had done so because they had “chosen to play outside a leading European league”.

Southgate is not the only manager mulling over the possibilities of players’ unretirement in the coming months. There are plenty of talented international refuseniks playing high-level club football who might just be lured back to the national jersey if a World Cup is on offer.

Here’s an XI of them, talented, if in some cases, a little temperamental:

GK Petr Cech. The 35-year-old goalkeeper played his 124th game for the Czech Republic at Euro 2016. A definitive farewell “entirely football-based”, he said. David Rogers / Getty Images

RB Dario Srna. After 134 caps, the dynamo of Croatia’s right flank said ‘enough’ last year. Popular and loyal, the Shakthar Donetsk player would probably help his country out if they asked. Sergei Supinsky / AFP

CB Per Mertesacker Mertesacker was man of the match in the FA Cup final for Arsenal, three years after he won the World Cup with Germany, who have plenty more in his position. Mark Schiefelbein / AP Photo

CB Joel Matip One of the notorious half dozen who refused to go to the last Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon, whose manager says Liverpool’s Matip is still not returning his calls. Mark Robinson / Getty Images

LB Christian Fuchs A Premier League champion with Leicester City in 2016, but no longer available to his native Austria, who feel hopeful Fuchs would answer a call-up if needed in a crisis. Andrew Yates / Reuters

RM James Milner Made his Premier League debut at 16, and after more than 60 England caps, the Liverpool player quit the national team aged 30 last year. No going back, it seems. Martin Rickett / PA

CM Yaya Toure The Ivory Coast totem talked a lot about international retirement before, having finally won an Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, he said farewell. Another World Cup might just tempt him. Josep Lago / AFP

LM Kevin-Prince Boateng After playing for Germany as a youth, the maverick dual-national switched to Ghana, and has since flitted in and out of international retirement. A row in 2014 looks to have made it terminal. Ronald Wittek / EPA

RW Franck Ribery Ribery, still turning on the skill for Bayern Munich, withdrew from consideration for France in 2014. “Personal reasons,” he said. Seems like he meant it. Carmen Jaspersen / AP Photo

CF Zlatan Ibrahimovic Sweden’s greatest modern sporting star has just announced his return, after injury, to Manchester United. He quit his national team last year. Would they like him back? No question. Oli Scarff / AFP

LW Wayne Rooney England’s record goalscorer called time on his national team this month. Hints have been dropped already that England might still ask if he fancies Russia next summer. Carl Recine / Reuters