Departing veteran Steve Corica admits he was tempted to play on next season, but the Sydney FC stalwart is convinced his decision to retire at the end of the current campaign is the right one.
An emotional Corica confirmed his 21st season as a professional footballer would be his last at a packed press conference on Wednesday, with the 36-year-old to continue his association with the club as a junior development coach next season.
But while the evergreen midfielder is looking forward to the next phase of his career, he vowed to end his playing days on a high by claiming the Premiership and Championship double with his beloved Sky Blues.
“Mainly I want to finish on a very good note with Sydney and at the moment there’s a big chance that we can win the minor premiership and obviously do very well in the finals,” Corica said.
“We won first year here in the grand final and it’d be very nice to finish it with another grand final win, but we’ve still got a lot of hard work to do.”
“But we’ve got a good chance this weekend to win the minor premiership (with a win over Melbourne Victory) – I haven’t done that with any club and it would be nice obviously to win both (the Premiership and Championship).”
Pressed on how seriously he considered prolonging his career, Corica, who revealed he almost pulled the pin at the end of a disastrous 2008/09 season, replied: “It was very close. Obviously the season is going well for me personally and as a team. I’m very happy with the way things have gone so maybe I thought do I hang around for another season.”
“But at my age I’m going to be 37 in March, you’re not sure how you’re going to go in the off-season. It’s very hard to get going in pre-season and it does take a lot more time to recover from games.”
Asked to single out the most memorable moments of a distinguished career which included stints in England with Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Walsall, Corica could not go past his winning goal in the grand final of inaugural A-League season.
“It’s been a long career so there’s been quite a few actually, the (2005/06) grand final for me scoring the winning goal is well up there and obviously playing for my country,” he said.
“That was a goal I set for myself as a kid and I did it when I was 19 … so I’m very proud of myself for doing that and playing in the Olympic Games as well was a special moment for me.”
A foundation player with Sydney FC, Corica has played 103 games in the sky blue, scoring 24 goals.
He won 32 caps for Australian between 1993-2006, finding the back of the net on five occasions.
