Napoli Icon Dries Mertens Announces Retirement From Professional Football

‎Belgian footballer Dries Mertens, whose contract with Turkish club Galatasaray expires at the end of June, announced on Monday that he is retiring from professional football at the age of 38.

‎”I’m leaving football, but I’ll put my boots on one last time for you,” he said in a video posted on his social media on Sunday night, addressing Slovakia’s Marek Hamsik, a former Napoli team-mate who has organised a charity match in early July.

‎109-time Belgian international Mertens scored 21 goals for the Red Devils and made his last appearance for Belgium in December 2022, during the World Cup in Qatar.

‎Mertens started his career at Eendracht Aalst on loan from KAA Gent. He then played in the Netherlands for AGOVV Apeldoorn before making a name for himself at FC Utrecht from 2009 to 2011.

‎In 2011, he moved to PSV Eindhoven, where he played until 2013.

‎Mertens enjoyed the peak of his career at Napoli from 2013 to 2022, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer with 148 goals in 397 appearances. On June 6th, 2025, he was named an honorary citizen of Naples.

‎Napoli fans affectionately nicknamed him Ciro, a name he has since passed on to his son, Ciro Mertens.

‎He spent the last three seasons at Galatasaray, with whom he won three Turkish Super Lig titles and completed the domestic double in 2025.

‎Mertens claimed his first trophy with PSV in 2012, winning the KNVB Beker and the Johan Cruyff Shield. He later added two Italian Cups to his collection with Napoli.