Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has joked that he could retire at the age of 30 as a result of the increasing number of matches in elite football’s calendar.
Akanji, 29, has already made seven appearances for club and country this term. He played his final game of last season on July 6 when Switzerland were knocked out of Euro 2024 and then started the first official match of the 2024-25 campaign in England, the Community Shield, on Aug. 10.
Next week City begin their campaign in the expanded Champions League, with eight league phase fixtures before the knockout rounds begin. They will end the season by competing in the 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, the final of which is scheduled for July 13.
“It’s so tough,” Akanji said. “You don’t just think about this season — but also next season. Let’s say we win the league or cup, then go to the final of the Club World Cup; the Community Shield is three weeks after. So when do we have holidays?
“There are no breaks in winter, so if we are lucky we get two weeks and then we need to be back and into next season. Then the next summer it’s the World Cup. There’s no end to it.”
Akanji has played 48 club games in each of his two full seasons at City, and is preparing for a similar workload this term.
“It’s just game after game and I don’t know how it will work out over the next couple of years,” he added. “You can’t just keep adding game after game and assume everything will be like it was. You have to think about the players as well.
“At some point you’ll be too tired to play any more games. And then come injuries, definitely. We train as hard as possible and we are fit — but there has to be a limit. Maybe I’ll retire at 30.”
Akanji’s sentiment is one shared by several players and the sport’s most prominent union, FIFPRO.
In June, FIFPRO filed a legal claim against world football’s governing body FIFA over the legality of FIFA’s unilateral ability to set the football calendar and the decision to create and schedule the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.