Angel Rangel has announced his retirement from football to spend “quality time” with his family.
The 38-year-old, who had recovered from a ruptured Achilles, has been at QPR and away from them since 2018.
The recent international break proved “game-changing” for the Spaniard and he is hanging up his boots.
“My intentions were to recover from the Achilles rupture, which I did, and then to train with QPR to prove to myself and others that I could play for another year,” Rangel told QPR’s website.
“But then the international break came around and I spent five days at home with the family, and my littles ones were telling me they were missing me so much.
“I have been at QPR for three years, so that is three years away from the family and that is a big part of their lives that I am missing for.
“That really broke my heart, it really broke my heart – and it made the decision easy for me. That was it. It took a day, it was a game-changing day.
“Quality time with the family is more important than anything else and that is what made me come to the decision so quickly.
“I told the family straight away, and my wife was super happy. For me, it was a mixture of sadness of course but also relief.
“Sadness because I thought I would play for longer but 38 is still very good – and relief because the weight off your shoulders is massive.
“My family was 100 per cent the over-riding factor for me.”
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