Former Uruguay international forward Diego Forlan has announced his retirement from football at the age of 40. The former Manchester United and Atletico Madrid forward said on his Twitter account in Spanish that he had decided to end his playing career after 21 years as a professional footballer.

"A beautiful stage closes full of great memories and emotions but other of new challenges will begin," he said. Forlan was capped 112 times by Uruguay, retiring from international football in 2015. He is his country's third-highest scorer with 36 goals, behind Barcelona's Luis Suraez and Paris St-Germain's Edinson Cavani. Forlan began his playing career at Independiente in Argentina before moving to Manchester United in 2002. He spent three years at Villarreal from 2004 before moving to fellow Spanish club Atletico Madrid.

After four years with Atletico he moved to Inter Milan and also had spells at Internacional in Brazil, Japan's Cerezo Osaka and his boyhood club Penarol. He had last been playing in Hong Kong for Kitchee SC. Among Forlan's highlights was fourth place with Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when he was voted best player of the tournament.