World Cup winner and ex-Chelsea attacker Andre Schurrle has confirmed his retirement from professional football at the age of just 29.
Earlier this week the forward's contract at Borussia Dortmund was terminated a year early, with Schurrle having made 33 Bundesliga appearances across two seasons for the club before spending campaigns on loan at Fulham and Spartak Moscow.
Alongside an Instagram picture of him lifting the World Cup with Germany in 2014, Schurrle wrote: "I want to let you know that I'm stepping away from playing professional football.
"On behalf of myself and my family I want to thank everybody who was a part of these phenomenal years! The support and love you shared with me was unbelievable and more than I could have ever asked for!
"Now I'm ready and open for all the beautiful possibilities that are coming towards me."
It was Schurrle who delivered the cross from which Mario Gotze scored the extra-time winner in the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina.
He won 57 caps for his country, scoring 22 times, and played for Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea and Wolfsburg prior to joining Dortmund in 2016.
However, in an interview with Der Spiegel he explained he had now fallen out of love with the game.
"The decision matured in me for a long time," Schurrle said. "The depths became deeper and the highlights less and less.
"You always have to play a certain role in order to survive in this business, otherwise you will lose your job and you won't get a new one.
“Only performance on the pitch counts. Vulnerability and weakness should not exist at any time."
Schurrle switched from Wolfsburg to Borussia Dortmund for €30 million ($35m) in 2016, but was never able to produce his best form for BVB.
This season, on loan at Spartak Moscow, he scored two goals in 18 appearances. He did not make an appearance after December 2019 due to injury.
Schurrle began his career with Mainz, and won club honours including the 2014-15 Premier League with Chelsea, and two DFB-Pokal titles – in 2015 with Wolfsburg and 2017 with Dortmund.
His last international match for Germany was in March 2017, playing in a 4-1 victory against Azerbaijan in qualification for the 2018 World Cup.