Players Retiring

This is an issue that has been annoying me for a few years now, and nothing really seems to be done about it.

Time and time again i see great players who could be doing a fantastic job for a mid table to lower end top division team, and they end up rotting in the reserves of the Man U's, Chelseas, Milans etc. An example recently is i saw Cristiano Ronaldo retiring at 35, a fairly decent age, except he still had a CA of 175!!! He could be a top player at almost any club in the world and because he was playing in 50% of matches he retired. Its just so annoying, i know it relates to reputation and i am ranting a bit, but id just like players 31-35 to seriously lower their expectations and to accept lower wages and offers from lower reputation teams in top divisions.

It annoys me more when a player aged 21 - 25 declines a new contract with your club and becomes a free agent. A month later they have retired at the age of 24 or something similar.

A lot of players won't do this in reality. Particularly not those who have been in the game on incredible wages for the majority of their careers. At 35 he may still be able to play at a top level for more or less any team but he wouldn't need to. Why go play for mid-table side X on £40k a week when you don't need to? There are and will be players who keep on going for longer and to the 40 or perhaps even beyond mark but there isn't much need for it for those who are world class these days.

Wouldn't "ambition" come into this? They'd want to be at the highest reputable clubs, no matter what. Playing for any another team of lesser reputation just isn't their style.

Some players would rather finish at the very top. Eric Cantona springs to mind.

I do agree that this is a problem, but again, it all filters into the problem with AI squad building. The AI keeps renewing the contracts of old players at high wages. If the AI would release big name older players instead of signing them to long deals and then not play them, then they could move on to smaller clubs for lesser money.

I wish there was an option to talk to an ageing legend about retiring or playing for another team.