5 soccer stars who retired too soon

There have been several great soccer players who retired before they could fully realize their potential. Whether it was because of injury or other opportunities, their premature departures left fans wondering what could have been.

Here are five soccer players who left the game too soon.

Hidetoshi Nakata

Hidetoshi Nakata was one of Japan’s great young talents when he burst on the scene at 18 years of age for Shonan Bellmare. He played 11 seasons in a career that took him from Japan to Perugia, AS Roma, Parma, Bologna, Fiorentina, and Bolton Wanderers.

At the age of 29, Nakata retired from soccer to pursue a career in fashion. He ended his career with 53 club goals in 583 appearances. He also had 77 caps and 11 goals for the Japanese national team.

He won a Serie A title once with Roma, a Coppa Italia with Parma, and twice won Asian Player of the Year. He won the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Bronze Ball and was named to the FIFA 100 in 2004, as one the 100 greatest living soccer players in the world.

Marco van Basten

Marco van Basten is regarded as one of the greatest players in soccer history. His career was spent first at Ajax, followed by AC Milan, where he scored 277 goals in 11 seasons. Beginning as a 17-year-old at Ajax, he quickly became one of the great players in Dutch soccer history.

He played his last match at age 28, before chronic injuries caused him to retire two years later. He won a combined 10 domestic cups, two European cups, and was a star on the Netherlands’ Euro 2008 squad that won it all. He won three Ballon d’Ors, a FIFA World Player of the Year, three UEFA Best Player of the Year awards, and also made the FIFA 100 list. Who knows what else he could have done had injuries not cut his career short.

Lauren Holiday

Lauren Holiday was such a beast in American soccer that she made the Olympic roster for the United States women’s national team while she was still in college at UCLA. After graduation she became a mainstay in the lineup for the best women’s program in the world.

She was part of the squads that finished runner-up in the 2011 Women’s World Cup, won gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and won the 2015 Women’s World Cup. She also won two National Women's Soccer League championships with FC Kansas City.

After the 2015 NWSL season, she announced her retirement from soccer at the age of 27. She left at the top of her game, and there’s no doubt she would have been a force on the USWNT team that repeated as Women’s World Cup champions in 2019.

Stu Holden

Stu Holden was one of the bright young talents for the United States men's national team. He won two MLS Cups with the Houston Dynamo and also played abroad for Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday.

However, injuries kept him on the bench—from broken legs to an eye injury suffered when he was attacked at a bar after he signed with Sunderland out of college (he never played for the club). Holden retired in 2014, after he suffered another knee injury.

He had 25 appearances for the USMNT, but had to transition to his current career as a TV broadcaster and analyst at the age of 29.

Eric Cantona 

Eric Cantona is one of the greatest players the world has ever seen. He made his name at Manchester United, but also had stops before that at Marseille, Montpellier, and Leeds United.

After a career where he won 14 domestic trophies and was considered arguably the greatest player on the planet, he retired at the age of 30. His legend lives on, as he was named to the FIFA 100 and is still considered arguably the best player in English Premier League history.

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