Marko Stankovic retires - “A big player of Austrian football goes to his well-deserved pension!”

Austrian footballer Marko Stankovic retires from professional football as he draws curtain to an illustrious career of 17 years. The Hyderabad FC midfielder will however, continue to play for SV Lebring, a provincial club in the Styrian state of Austria.

The 34-year-old did have an offer from Austrian Bundesliga side but he turned it down. Kronen Zeitung reported that, Stankovic wants to spend more time with his son, Junior Fabio and share his experience with his state club.

The paper also hailed Stankovic as a dying breed of footballers in today's professional soccer of the yes-sayers. “With Stankovic, domestic football also loses an attractive figure that never left anyone cold. Marko polarised, he didn't say a word,” Kronen wrote.

Stankovic started his career at DSV Leoben in the second Austrian league, later moved to SK Sturm Graz before moving to US Triestina in Italy. After a year he returned to Austria and joined Wiener Austria, where he won the championship title in 2013. This was followed by a three-year return to SK Sturm and half a year at SV Ried before he moved to FC Pune City in 2018.

Stankovic represented Austria just once in a match against Turkey in 2008 though he had made many appearances as a youth international. 

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He remained true to his motto until the end: either completely or not at all, half-hearted things were never his thing. “A big player of Austrian football goes to his well-deserved pension!,” Kronen wrote.