Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has joked that he could retire at 30 as a result of the increasing number of games on the elite football calendar.
Akanji, 29, has already made seven appearances for club and country this season. He played his final game of last season on 6 July as Switzerland crashed out of Euro 2024, and then started England's first competitive game of the 2024-25 campaign, the Community Shield, on 10 August.
City will begin their expanded Champions League campaign next week, with eight league-stage matches before the knockout rounds begin. They will finish the season by competing in the 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, the final of which is scheduled for July 13.
“It's very difficult,” Akanji said. “You're not just thinking about this season, but next season as well. Let's say we win the league or the cup, and then we go through to the Club World Cup final; the Community Shield is three weeks later. So when do we get a holiday?”
“There are no breaks in winter, so if we're lucky we'll have two weeks and then we'll have to play again next season. Then next summer there's the World Cup. There's no end.”
Akanji has made 48 club appearances in each of his two full seasons at City and is preparing for a similar workload this season.
“It's one game after another and I don't know how it will turn out in the next few years,” he added. “You can't just keep adding games and assuming everything will be the same as before. You have to think about the players too.”
“At some point you'll be too tired to play any more games. And then there will be injuries, for sure. We train as hard as possible and we're fit, but there has to be a limit. Maybe I'll retire at 30.”
Akanji's sentiment is shared by several players and the sport's most prominent union, FIFPRO.
In June, FIFPRO filed a legal challenge against world football's governing body FIFA over the legality of FIFA's unilateral ability to set the football calendar and the decision to create and schedule the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
