Samuel played his last professional match

The former Argentine international defender Walter Samuel put an end to his professional football career. In the last match of the 38-year-old player Basel lost 0-1 to Grasshoppers. However, Basel once again won the title in Switzerland.

Walter Samuel started his career at the age of 18 in Newell’s Old Boys (Argentina) in 1996. He immediately became a key part of the first team with his great positioning and heading skills. The defender recorded 42 appearances for the club in 1996, which won him a transfer to the Argentine grand Boca Juniors.

The centre back played for The Blue and Gold until 2000. Samuel scored 5 goals in 103 matches for Boca Juniors. At the club, he won 1998 Apertura and 1999 Clasura. Moreover, he lifted the most prestigious South American trophy – Copa Libertadores in 2000.

Then, Italian club Roma sign him for about €20 m. He was one of the best centre backs and helped his new club win Seria A and Supercoppa Italiana in 2001. Walter Samuel spent 4 seasons in Roma – until 2004, when he moved to Real Madrid.

The Argentinian played for Real Madrid only one season. He scored 2 goals in 40 games for Los Blancos. But the defender couldn’t win any trophy with the Spanish team. Just a year later he was sold to Inter Milano, where he spent his most successful seasons.

Samuel won Seria A on 5 occasions and the Italian cup (3 times) with Internazionale. Moreover, after Mourinho’s arrival, they lifted the Champions league trophy in 2010. The Argentinian defender spent the last two seasons of his career at Swiss club Basel, where he again won the championship twice.

Even though Walter Samuel was one of the best centre backs ever, he couldn’t achieve anything significant with the Argentinian national team. His best performance was in 2005, when Argentina became runners-up in The Confederations Cup. Samuel was also part of Argentina’s squad at 3 more major international tournaments. Samuel took part in Copa America 1999, but Argentina lost in the quarterfinals. Then, in 2002 Samuel played in all the 3 matches from the group stage of The World Cup in Korea and Japan, but his team was eliminated from the tournament. His last major international competition was the World Cup 2010. Samuel left injured in the 23rd minute of the second game and couldn’t help Argentina record something significant in the tournament (the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals). Samuel scored 5 goals in 56 matches for the national team of Argentina.

However, the name of Walter Samuel is a synonym of strong defensive play. He was good at heading and marking. Even though Samuel wasn’t the fastest defender, he had a great positioning. Samuel also scored lots of important goals in his long career. The young defenders should watch videos of him playing and learn from him!