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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dan Kilpatrick

Former Tottenham star Mousa Dembele to hang up boots at end of contract after retirement confusion

Former Tottenham and Fulham midfielder Mousa Dembele has revealed he will retire at the end of his current contract.

The 34-year-old has a year remaining on his deal with Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande and reports in Belgium on Tuesday claimed he was at home in Antwerp, having decided to hang up his boots.

Tottenham’s official twitter account responded by congratulating Dembele on an "incredible career" and urging him to "enjoy retirement".

But, although Dembele is thought to be in talks over terminating his contract early, he took to social media to insist that he has not retired yet.

"Thank you for all the nice messages I have received," he wrote on Instagram. "To clear up, I haven’t stopped yet. I still have a year on my contract left. But I can already share I will stop my career after this year is finished."

Dembele moved to English football with Fulham in 2010, making 62 League appearances in two seasons with the Cottagers, but it was at Spurs that he enjoyed his best spell.

Once described by former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino as one of the "five geniuses" he had worked with, Dembele was the beating heart of the Argentine’s side from 2014 until he moved to China in January 2019.

He was central to Spurs’ rise under Pochettino, forming superb midfield pairings with Eric Dier then Victor Wanyama and helping them to consecutive title challenges and FA Cup semi-finals, and the 2014 League Cup final.

He made over 200 appearances for the north London club in all competitions, having initially signed for £15million in August 2012 when Andre Villas-Boas was the manager.

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