So, Piqué et David Silva retired from international football? :O I just learned it today, shame, both player are still class especially Silva. :( By the way, is there any other player other than those 2 and Ozil who retired from international football after the WC? I haven't heard about any other as of now. I was recently kind of unable to check as much news as I wanted about football so that might be why I missed it.

Apparently, Tim Cahill also retired. Sad to see him go after all those years. :(

All those players mentioned had great international careers and it's time for them to be mentors for the next generation. Still waiting on Ramos to retire though.

Łukasz Piszczek from Borussia Dortmund also retired from international football, probably my favourite Polish player and big part pf our team. Hope to see him as a coach someday as he is full of charisma and always looked like he understands the game.

Lopetegui disrespect the senior squad lol. Should have made better memories with iniesta silva and pique knowing its the last appearance.

@iHEART I personally wouldn't have any problem with it but I doubt it, maybe he will after Euro 2020 though, we'll see how his form hold till then.

@Serans Completely forgot about him, I heard of it but yeah, he seemed like a very good player in his prime, too bad to see him end his international career on that note. :( Hope you are right about him becoming a coach in the future, the way you said it, I feel it would be great. :D

Ramos is still too experienced and far too talented to retire. He is arguably the best CB in the world right now.

Lopetegui will be a biggest moron when he gets fired by Madrid this year on top of being humiliated by media and fans for prematurely quitting World Cup days before. Who does this? There are things bigger than money. Now he will go down in history of Spain as un gran pendejo y hijo de perra!

I hear Messi is retiring again. Hopefully for good this time. Poor lad can't catch a break from media for his sh*tty performances for Argentina.

I have no problem seeing Pique retiring... even from Barca. The most overrated defs almost ever. :D

Im gonna miss Silva

@Dynastian I think thats not why some of us wouldn't mind seeing him retire. :P

@Marcus2011 Yeah, Lopetegui will get a lots of stick but to be fair, its not him who chosed to leave the Spain national team, he wanted to leave after the WC only. I understand he and Real shouldn't have made the deal something public though. Huge mistake from them.

@tuan Pique just cannot catch a break on this forum. :P He isn't that bad afer all, I mean, obviously not as good as some people would say, but still decent.

Pique is decent, but the only time he even remotely resembled a world-class defender was when Carles Puyol masked all of his deficiencies... ever since then, he's been clueless in almost every CB partnership - even with a genuinely world-class CB like Ramos.

And just because you don't like a player doesn't mean he's still not at the top of his level... I don't like Sergio Busquets, but that doesn't mean I think he should retire from the Spanish national team.

@Dynastian Fair enough, anyway, like I said, it wouldn't bother me on a personal level but I do think it would be an huge blow to Spain. Would weaken them a lot in defense. Also, he clearly still have enough quality to give something to the side like you said. Then again, I believe the same could have been said about Pique and Silva. Silva is a class player while Pique had been part of the system for a long time now, it will propably be tough to replace them at first. :(

I too, dont like Ramos, i think he is a huge a**hole. But i dont argue he is among the top 3 best CB now, if not the best

Ćorluka, Mandžukić and Subašić from Croatia, apparently Rakitić soon too :(

@Croatian Damn, hadn't heard of it, huge blow for Croatia. :(

Victor Moses also quited his NT it seem. :(

Also, back on Ramos, for all the crap he get from us fan, he still does some very good stuff as well off the pitch, like this for example:

Exactly tuan. The guy is complete scum on the field but who knows off the field he might just be a good guy.

I wouldn't doubt if these guys are awesome off the field. And actually do more charity than any of us, because they can.

Im talking about on the field only.

Then it raises another question.. should player conduct himself on the field just as good as he conducts himself off the field? Certain players have certain responsibilities because after all millions of young kids are watching them.

I'm willing to overlook such behavior so long as the player isn't trying to maliciously injure others. Diego Costa and Pepe are the only two players that come to my mind of being guilty of maliciously trying to injure others on a regular basis.

Coming from someone who's watched Pepe for almost his entire Madrid career, he doesn't do a tenth of the malicious acts that Diego Costa does. Costa is the only player I've seen who I would say doesn't deserve to be a football player by his behavior, although I wouldn't complain if anyone says Pepe is of the same caliber too.

I've seen a lot of other players who kick out when angry (Ronaldo, Aguero, etc.), but for the most part players like Ramos and Godin just do knick-knack fouls which serve to annoy the hell out of opposition. You can't really criticize them for that because it's a contact sport and many defenders try to psychologically manipulate the forwards they face in order to gain an advantage.

The reason Ramos has been particularly vilified recently is because of the unfortunate Salah tackle that dislocated Salah's shoulder. Egyptians and Liverpool apologists went ballistic on social media after that tackle, which essentially served as defamation for Sergio. I'm not sure how many of you would believe me when I say Casemiro is twice as dirty as Ramos, but hasn't built up the reputation since he has yet to entangle himself with a famous player.

Ramos is just the face of Real Madrid and has been a major factor in the dynastic Madrid team of our generation, so he gets all the shit in the world thrown in his face every time he steps on the pitch.

And yes, I also think we should hold players to a standard. All this diving and play-acting is nonsense - it should be stopped. Notable players like Ramos, Suarez, and Neymar don't help when they propel this narrative of rolling around on the ground every time they get tackled or touched.

I'm not sure how many of you would believe me when I say Casemiro is twice as dirty as Ramos, but hasn't built up the reputation since he has yet to entangle himself with a famous player.

Would you be supised if I said I believe you completely and has felt this way (that Casemiro is worse than Ramos) for a very long time.