{"id":26599,"date":"2022-09-20T12:52:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T12:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup"},"modified":"2022-09-20T13:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T13:10:06","slug":"european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup","title":{"rendered":"European champion Rafa Silva retires ahead of football World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>Portuguese footballer Rafa Silva, who won the UEFA EURO 2016, retired on Monday, two months ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

“Today I informed the (Portugal) coach Fernando Santos and the FPF (Portuguese Football Federation) of my unavailability to represent the national team,” Silva said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“This is an honest and right decision, at this point in my career,” he added.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old said he retired from international football for “personal reasons.”<\/p>\n

The Benfica forward helped Portugal win the EURO 2016 and the 2019 UEFA Nations League titles.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese football body said it respected Silva’s decision, and thanked him for the achievements.<\/p>\n

Silva amassed 25 international appearances for his nation.<\/p>\n

A Benfica player since 2016, he scored 64 goals and made 54 assists in 239 matches for the Lisbon club.<\/p>\n

The 2022 World Cup will start on Nov. 20 in Qatar. Portugal are in the group with Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Portuguese footballer Rafa Silva, who won the UEFA EURO 2016, retired on Monday, two months ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. “Today I informed the (Portugal) coach Fernando Santos and the FPF (Portuguese Football Federation) of my unavailability to represent the national team,” Silva said in a statement. “This is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":26598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-26599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nEuropean champion Rafa Silva retires ahead of football World Cup - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Portuguese footballer Rafa Silva, who won the UEFA EURO 2016, retired on Monday, two months ahead of the 2022 FIFA World ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"European champion Rafa Silva retires ahead of football World Cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Portuguese footballer Rafa Silva, who won the UEFA EURO 2016, retired on Monday, two months ahead of the 2022 FIFA World ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-20T12:52:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-20T13:10:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_10-6329bb9765592.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"486\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"European champion Rafa Silva retires ahead of football World Cup\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-20T12:52:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-20T13:10:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\"},\"wordCount\":168,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_10-6329bb9765592.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/european-champion-rafa-silva-retires-ahead-of-football-world-cup\",\"name\":\"European champion Rafa Silva retires ahead of football World Cup - 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