With the end of Nottingham Forest’s season, Reds’ centre-back Felipe is now officially retired.
The 35-year-old wasn’t given a chance to have a farewell match, but still sounds pretty satisfied with the end of his career.
Felipe gave Globo Esporte quite a long interview, where he highlighted some of his happiest moments in football and his reasons to stop playing professionally at this stage.
He said that even though he hasn’t been playing much for Nottingham Forest recently, he still received several offers for this summer, and turned them all down. He didn’t want to name most of the clubs, but says there was even a chance to continue playing in English football.
“Look, from a financial point of view, there was a lot of good. But I think that today, putting my family and quality time on the balance… There was no point in going through this process, which I already had plans for. I think it was easy. I also knew the consequences. I have a post-football plan. It was all well thought out, right?
“Ah, look, I honestly prefer not to say. In Brazil, there were four or five teams that came looking. In Portugal, Porto, who had a very good offer, open doors. And in Arabia, it was more the financial part. There were also some in Spain, here in England… But I’d rather not say.”
He explains that not even the money from Saudi Arabia couldn’t change his mind at this point.
“No, it didn’t. It’s like I said, I don’t think it did, putting quality time with my family in the balance, adding memories and all that. I don’t think there were any, nothing like that that filled my eyes, not even financially.
“In Brazil, it’s clearly easier, I could take days off, but we know it’s not that simple, right? The routine of a footballer, the dedication, going to bed early, eating. So we don’t have that much time for family matters, travelling, spending seven days somewhere. It’s not such a simple schedule. So I think this was the moment, the opportunity I saw.”
Felipe told Globo he’s now set to return to Brazil, where he’s spending more time with his family and will start thinking about having children. He said that he liked most places he lived during his career, although he’s clearly not a big fan of the English weather.
“Here in England we know it’s not one of the best climates, right? It’s quite complicated, a place that has, I don’t know, two months of sunshine, the rest is all rain and closed weather. But when it comes to football, it’s one of the best, it’s the league that enchants the most. Portugal has its Brazilian customs, it’s very similar. It wasn’t difficult at all, a very good place to live. I lived in Porto, very nice there. And the experience in Madrid, because it’s a big city, you have more freedom to go to a restaurant and so on. People are very respectful. Everyone has their own way of life, but I think in general, from a country perspective, England is more complicated.”
