Ben Foster announces retirement as former Man Utd and England goalkeeper hangs up gloves

Former Manchester United and England goalkeeper Ben Foster has announced his retirement from football at the age of 39.

The eight-cap Three Lions international won the League Cup on three occasions - twice with United and once with Birmingham City - and made 536 senior appearances at club level during his career. He was released by Watford at the expiry of his contract this summer and turned down a move to Newcastle this season.

Foster confirmed he was hanging up his gloves via a video released on his popular YouTube channel titled 'It's time to say goodbye'. The Leamington Spa native said: "I've got an announcement to make, it's a big one. The time has finally come for me to announce my retirement."

Foster opened up on how Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was willing to meet his sizeable wage demands to bring him to St James' Park, after the Magpies were left light of options in goal following Martin Dubravka's loan departure to Manchester United and the injury suffered by Karl Darlow. However, the former West Brom shot-stopper decided against the move to Tyneside as it is a four-hour car journey from his family home in the Midlands, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Foster admitted the exciting project at cash-rich Newcastle "was really interesting to me" and confessed he was somewhat surprised when his lofty wage demands were met. However, he added: "I just didn't want to do it. The wrench of it was I'd have to move away from home and that would kill me.

"If I'm in an apartment in Newcastle away from my family by myself, I don't think people can understand, that's really hard to do. Especially at the age I am and everything I've got going on.

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"It would be incredible [to work with Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope], Popey is the man. I love Nick Pope, their goalie coach [Adam Bartlett] is a top man, they've got a British core of players, the gaffer, I know for a fact if I'd have gone there I would have had an amazing time.

"The lads would have been brilliant and I would have buzzed off the stadium, the fans, all that kind of stuff. The overriding sinking feeling was I don't want to do this. That gut feeling, you know when people say you have to go with your gut feeling and I had this feeling deep down, I just don't want to do it."

Outside of football, Foster has amassed a following of 1.18million subscribers on his YouTube, called 'The Cycling GK', where he posts cycling videos and matchday vlogs, while he also runs the 'Fozcast' podcast.