Jesús Navas, one of the most condecorated Spanish football players in histoy, played a professional match for the final time yesterday with his longtime team, Sevilla. It was at the Santiago Bernabéu, during the final matchday of the year, ending 4-2 in favour of the whites -who also passed FC Barcelona in the Liga charts-.
The match started a bit unusually, with a double guard of honor. First, Sevilla players "made a hallway", as it's said in Spanish, to the Real Madrid players, who recently lifted the Intercontinental Cup trophy signlaing them as the World Champions.
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Then, both Madrid and Sevilla players formed another guard of honour for Jesús Navas, who received a standing ovation from the crowd and was gifted with a signed t-shirt.
Even during the game, Real Madrid players chanted his name when he joined the pitch as a substition at the 65th minute. By then, the match was already 4-1. Mbappé and Valverde scored in the first 20 minutes, with power shots outside the box, and Madrid displayed one of their best games of the season, if not the best, despite conceiding two goals.
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Navas announced at the beginning of the season that he would retire at the end of the year due to a chornic hip injury. He recently turned 39. He played most of his 21-year career in Sevilla, winning eight titles, including four UEFA Cup/Europa League titles. From 2013 to 2017 he played at Manchester City, where he won Premier League in 2014.
In Spain, he was the only player from the 2010 World Cup win to be back for last summer's UEFA European Championship, as well as 2023's UEFA Nations League, being the only football player in the world to have won those three trophies.