McAnuff hangs up his boots - Reggae Boy announces retirement on social media

After 20 years in professional football, which included a stint in management, national midfielder Jobi McAnuff has called time on his playing career yesterday.

The 39-year-old McAnuff announced his retirement on social media in the aftermath of a League Two season with Leyton Orient which saw him move from a player-coach role at the beginning of the season, to being named interim manager for the last 16 games of the season.

McAnuff's playing career began at Wimbledon in 2001 and he had stints with eight different teams, including Premier League outfits West Ham United, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Reading, and captained to English Premier League promotion in 2011/12 by winning the Football League Championship title. Additionally, in the latter stages of his career, McAnuff helped Orient gained promotion to League Two in 2019.

McAnuff said that he felt that the time was right to begin the next chapter of his life and the last few years of his career have been in preparation for his eventual retirement.

"There have been so many highlights along the way but ones that stand out are making my debut for Wimbledon, scoring my first goal, captaining two title-winning teams, leading my team out in the Premier League and at Wembley and playing internationally for Jamaica," McAnuff said. "It's been a tough decision but my body and mind have finally had enough of the rigours of the day to play football and I definitely feel now is the right time to hang the boots up."

McAnuff represented the Reggae Boyz 32 times and scored one goal during his international career and was part of the squad that won the 2014 Caribbean Cup and also participated in the 2016 Copa American tournament in the United States.

First stint in management

In his first stint in management, he finished the season with six wins, six losses and four draws and guided Leyton Orient to 11th place in the league but missed the play-off places. The performances were not enough to earn him the job on a permanent basis despite club chairman Nigel Travis complementing the work that he had done during his five-month run.

"Jobi achieved some excellent results as our manager and we are sure he will prove successful in his future career," Travis said in a recent BBC report. "But we haven't achieved what we'd wanted to this season and we feel that in order to take us to the next level we need to start again in a number of areas."

McAnuff said while disappointed with the outcome, he has grown during the limited time and will use the experiences gained to take his fledging career forward.

"I have been extremely proud to have overseen some great results and performances during these 16 games including our longest unbeaten spell and our longest winning run in the league this season," McAnuff said in an Instagram post last Saturday. "Unfortunately, the season didn't finish as we would have liked but that's football and there are still plenty of positives that I will take out of it."

"Although naturally disappointed not to be able to take the role on further, I have gained an awful lot from the experience and learnt so much in the last 16 games. It's given me a brilliant insight into what it takes to manage at this level and given me things I will be able to use and build on moving forward."

McAnuff finishes his playing career with more than 700 appearances, 75 goals and 102 assists.