One of the greatest and most prolific goalscorers of the past 20 years announced his retirement from the game. Roy Makaay, 35, plans to hang up his boots and begin to coach within the Feyenoord youth system as he expressed in a press conference on Monday.

Makaay was a symbol of consistency when having to score and was among the most skillful in terms of defining in front of goal.

During his 17-year career he scored a total of 253 goals in the five teams he played in.  Still with those numbers, he was overshadowed during the apex of his career by players like Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, and Ruud Van Nistlerooy but was still considered as one of the top scoring threats in the game during the late 90's and early 2000's.  Because of these titanic figures in Dutch football, Makaay had a very limited role with the Oranje taking part in the 2004 and 2008 European Championships and was one of the veteran players that was part of the Dutch side that played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  


Roy started his career with Dutch side Vitesse where he started to make a name for himself as a top-notch poacher.  That talent was quickly seen and he was signed by Spanish side Tenerife.  Makaay was thought to be the individual that would help Los Chicharreros get to the next level, but things did not work out as the team would begin a gradual descent that would see them playing in the Spanish second division in 1999.

He would then sign with Deportivo and his career would take off.  With the addition of Makaay and players like Diego Valerón, Djalminha, Diego Tristán, Donato, Songo'o, Mauro Silva, Joan Capdevila, and Jorge Andrade... Euro Depor would go on one of the most impressive runs in team history.

During this time they would win the lone league title in club history as well as two Spanish Super Cups and a Copa del Rey.  Makaay was the primary ingredient offensively for Los Blanquiazules as he was league Pichichi in 2002-03 and won the European Golden Boot that same year.  

In 2003, he arrived to Bayern Munich on an €18.75 million transfer.  There his scoring touch continued to flourish and the trophies continued to come in.   His scoring pace at Bayern (78 goals in 128 matches) was pretty much the same as at La Coruña (79 goals in 133 matches).  Percentage wise he improved at Bayern scoring percentage as he surpassed 0.6 goals per match (compared to 0.593 with Depor).

During his time with the Bavarian giants, he won two Bundesliga titles, a German Cup, and a German Super Cup. The writing seemed to be on the wall for the Dutch international as the signings of Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.  That is when he decided to head back home and play for Feyenoord.

At Feyenoord he continued his pace scoring 45 goals in 94 matches.   He will finish out the season before moving over to his coaching role with the club, but before that he will have to revert a 0-2 deficit against Ajax in the final of the Dutch Cup.

• La Liga (1999-2000)
• Copa del Rey (2000)
• Spanish Super Cup (2000, 2002)

• Bundesliga (2004-05, 2005-06)
• German Cup (2004-05, 2005-06)
• German Super Cup (2005, 2006)

• Dutch Cup (2008)

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Makaay announces retirement

Although it is early, the league is already tight up top and no one will catch Real Madrid and Barcelona. Both sides were once again convincing as the Catalans gave a clinic in Santander, while the Merengues deep sixed the Yellow Submarine in Castellón.

Lionel Messi earned a brace while Cristiano Ronaldo led the pace of his team and neither were able to be stopped. If there is one thing that sets Madrid apart from Barcelona is the fact that they are more ruthless and stay on top of their opponents more. Barca in the meantime have lapses in they take they foot off of the pedal. This allows opposition to start attacking them and even score goals on them mostly due to the errors in the backline.

This was the example against Atlético and that was the case for a small stretch against Racing Santander. Omar Serrano took advantage of that mistake and was able to to give the fans at El Sardinero the only thing they could cheer about. It might not be a big thing right now, but it will be one nit-picky thing that the media will point out as the top spot in La Liga could come down to goal differential. Other than that you cannot really blame the Blaugrana for much of anything. Messi along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic have been lethal on the attack and Racing was the latest victim; falling 4-1 and earning a one-goal lead in the differential standings over Real Madrid.

Sevilla is the only team that has a slight chance to even be in the same solar system as Galácticos 2.0 and Pep Team. They will constantly be the silent pest for both of these teams, but there will be questions about their defense. They came out solid and the usual suspects were the ones that were consistent against a Mallorca side that lost for the first time this season.

One team that has not been able to find their way have been Xerez. The newcomers to the top flight have seen that playing with the big boys is a tough mission. Even though they played Real Madrid tough, they fell apart in the last 15 minutes allowing five goals and seeing their morale go down significantly. There was little time to recover for these boys, and it seemed like they needed more are a young Deportivo side was poised to add insult to injury. Xerez show potential as far as scoring, the only problem is that they need to stop doing it in their own net. Deportivo was ruthless and they showed it in their 3-0 win in Jerez.

Manu del Moral was also vicious against a Valencia side that has fallen off the cloud that they were on during the first week of the season. His brace against a suspect Valencia defense left the Azulones in prime position 3-1. With his two goals, del Moral has not become the all-time leading scorer in Getafe history, surpassing Dani Güiza.

Scores

Tuesday

Racing 1-4 Barcelona

Sevilla 2-0 Mallorca

Getafe 3-1 Valencia

Wednesday

Villarreal 0-2 Real Madrid

Atlético 2-2 Almería

Valladolid 1-2 Osasuna

Xerez 0-3 Deportivo

Espanyol 2-1 Málaga

Tenerife 1-0 Athletic

Thursday

Sporting - Zaragoza

La Liga Week 4 Roundup

It seems like an eternity since we all recall Gustavo Munúa fight with Israeli international Dudu Aouate. Now Miguel Ángel Lotina has given complete closure to the issue as the Uruguayan international has aparently been called back to action by the Depor coach

Munúa Returns To Depor