Tomas Rosicky's Retirement Means All Of The Secret Tournament Players Have Retired

In 2002 we were all readying ourselves for the World Cup and Nike excited us all with one of the greatest adverts in footballing history. Tomas Rosicky's retirement today means all the players from their 'secret tournament' have hung up their boots.

Before the 1998 World Cup sportswear giant Nike graced us with a classic advert of the Brazil team, choc full of talent like Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos, playing football throughout the airport.

Four years later and they were back with an even better showing as some of the best players on the planet battled it out on a container ship to become the best three-a-side cage football team in the world.

_{Some of the world's greatest players get ready for their tournament. Image: PA Images.}

Hosted by Eric Cantona and with Elvis playing in the background we could only wish that the tournament was real and televised in full.

However 15 years on all of those players have now all retired with former Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky the last man to call time on his career this afternoon. The positive is though it gives us a chance to remember just how awesome the advert is:

_{Credit: Nike}

Rosicky started his career at Sparta Prague and after an injury laden decade at Arsenal moved back to his hometown club in 2016. He played just 12 times there before retiring.

In a statement on their website the Czech midfielder said, "After careful consideration I have realised I am no longer able to fully prepare my body for what the professional football requires.

"I would like to thank Sparta for raising me, for being the first step in my career in big clubs, and for allowing me to say goodbye at the place I love the most."

_{Rosicky celebrates scoring against West Brom. Image: PA Images.}

Ronaldinho hasn't officially retired yet but he has announced that the end of his career is coming in 2018 and he's currently without a club so he's pretty much done.

Now that you've got all this free time lads it's time to get the tournament on for real, I'm pretty certain we'd all watch!

Topics: World Cup, Eric Cantona, Nike

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

@Sidler28