Joaquin Sanchez (42), a Spanish soccer player who is more famous in Korea for missing a penalty shootout in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup quarter-finals, the player who coined the buzzword “Gaho (but still Joaquin),” is retiring from active duty.

Football España said on the 20th (Korean time), “Spanish football and Real Betis legend Joaquin has announced that he will retire at the end of this season.” It has been 24 years since his professional debut in 1999.

Joaquin is a legend of Spanish club Betis. He holds the record for the most appearances for his club with 521 career games as a former Betis youth. Beyond Betis, he was also a side striker who dominated the era of the Spanish Primera Liga. Joaquín played 615 matches in his Primera Liga career, ranking second in the most appearances in his career. It is only 7 games behind legendary goalkeeper Andoni Subisaretta (622 games), who is recording first place in his career. If Joaquin plays the rest of the league schedule, he will exceed this record.안전놀이터

Joaquin, who left Betis in 2006, also played in Valencia, Malaga (Spain) and Fiorentina (Italy). During his time in Málaga, he even reached the quarterfinals of the European Champions League. Joaquin, who returned to Betis in 2015, led them to the Copa del Rey title last year. Throughout his football career, Joaquin appeared in 839 club games, scoring 112 goals and scoring 103 assists. He scored 4 goals and 4 assists in 51 matches for the Spanish national football team.

Among domestic fans, he is famous as the player who missed the penalty shootout in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup quarterfinal match between Korea and Spain. At that time, Joaquin’s penalty was blocked by legendary goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae (Jeonbuk Hyundai coach). Thanks to this, Hong Myung-bo (coach of Ulsan Hyundai), another legend,’s last kick shook the net, and Korea advanced to the semifinals of the historic World Cup.

He was also nicknamed ‘That Aho’ (but still Joaquin). In mid-2000, domestic football fans compared Joaquín to Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr), a rising star at the time. While there were opinions that saw Ronaldo as a better player, other fans insisted on Joaquin’s dominance, saying, ‘Still Joaquin’. This debate has been going on for quite some time and has become a buzzword. It was also a word that represents Joaquin’s skills and persistence. A part that can be understood just by looking at his active life beyond his 40s. Ronaldo, who is considered ‘the greatest of all time’ (GOAT), and Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain) cannot be regarded as players, but in Korea, he was as famous as them.

In European football, it is also famous for the incident in which Alex Ferguson recruited Ronaldo instead of Joaquin when he was manager of Man Utd, and the case in which Jose Mourinho (AS Roma) sent a love call to Joaquin when he led Chelsea, but Joaquin rejected it with a single knife. do.

Joaquin said on his social media, “The moment has come when I have to say that this season is the end of my player life.”