Sergio Agüero had to end his career at the age of 33 due to heart problems. “A special guy”, in the opinion of Pep Guardiola, left the football stage. How special is shown by a story about the Argentine that happened when he left Manchester City.
Like the portal The Athletic reported in the summer that Agüero gave every single employee around the Citizens professional team a luxury watch as a goodbye. Over 60 staff members are said to have had the choice between a Hublot – unit price around 9,400 euros – and a Tag Heuer in the Formula 1 model – unit price around 1,800 euros.
The farewell message “Gracias! Kun Agüero!” engraved. In addition to the watch gift, Agüero also organized its own lottery. Each employee received one ticket. The main prize was Agüero’s newly acquired Range Rover.
Agüero moved to Manchester City in 2011 for around 40 million euros and became an absolute club legend within ten years. With his 184 Premier League goals he is currently fourth in the all-time top scorer list of the elite league behind Andy Cole (187), Wayne Rooney (208) and Alan Shearer (260). However, in contrast to the three legends before him, he did not even need nearly 400 missions. His average of 108 minutes per goal is amazing.
One of his 184 goals gave the Skyblues their first championship in 44 years in 2012 – and one of the most legendary moments in Premier League history. In the last game of the season City were down 2-1 against Queens Park Rangers into stoppage time, but needed a win because Manchester United had overtaken Sunderland 1-0 at the same time. In the second minute of stoppage time Edin Dzeko scored to equalize, two minutes later Agüero scored 3-2, making City the champions.
Agüero at Barca: Heart failure costs career
After ten years in the club with numerous title wins (4x championship, 1x FA Cup, 5x League Cup), the separation, from Agüero’s point of view, followed in the summer. While he would have liked to extend his expiring contract, the club seemed to have doubts about the high injury susceptibility of the now 33-year-old – and also squinting at a transfer from top striker Harry Kane.
“His legendary status has been etched indelibly into the memories of all those who love the club or just football,” City boss Khaldoon Al Mubarak was quoted in a statement by the club, in which it was also announced that Aguero had a memorial in front of the Ethiad Stadium will be set.
“Kun”, as he was named after his favorite cartoon character by his grandfather and later became known in the football world, moved to FC Barcelona and his friend Lionel Messi, with whom he had been with a few days earlier, after a tearful farewell from ManCity in the summer Copa America won and also made himself immortal in his home country.
But Messi left the Catalans in a spectacular way in the summer and Agüero did not find the new luck he had hoped for in his new club. A protracted calf injury put him out of action until mid-October, when he made five appearances for Barca, in which he scored at least once.
Then on October 30th the shock: Agüero had to be treated for minutes after an aerial duel in the league game against Deportivo Alaves and suffered from shortness of breath. Subsequent examinations revealed cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac insufficiency. They now cost him the continuation of his career.
