Car racing beckons for Abbondanzieri
Reuters - Sunday 12 December 2010, 18:50
ABU DHABI - Former Argentina and Boca
Juniors goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri may have a go at car
racing after retiring from football at the end of the Club World
Cup.
Abbondanzieri, reserve keeper for Brazil's Internacional,
said on Sunday he was quitting the game after winning a string
of titles with Boca and helping Argentina reach the 2006 World
Cup quarter-finals in Germany.
"Motor racing? I like it a lot, it's a passion of mine," he
told reporters before a training session with South American
champions Internacional.
"I've been to races, I've driven, all on the quiet. I'm only
talking now because football is ending (for me)," Abbondanzieri
said laughing.
"It's a different sort of adrenaline, it's all or nothing."
Internacional, who won the world title in Japan in 2006,
meet TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday
looking for a place in their second final.
Abbondanzieri, having lost his place at Boca last year,
joined Inter and helped them win the Libertadores Cup, his
fourth South American title having lifted it three times with
Boca.
The 38-year-old known by his nickname Pato is, however, now
a reserve to Renan but he loves training and the chance to
perhaps step in to play once more.
"I'm enjoying every day as if it's the last because it's
coming to an end... I don't think I'll feel sadness because I
did all I wanted to achieve and I know what life I want to lead
after football, I'm ready," he said.
"It's logical that with Boca I'd have liked to say goodbye
in a packed Bombonera but that's football... I had to come to
Inter where I've been treated as a Brazilian like them."