Serie A: Daniele De Rossi to leave AS Roma

AS Roma captain Daniele De Rossi has announced that he will be leaving the club at the end of the current season, eighteen years after his debut for the Giallorossi. The midfielder, aged 35, has added that he will not retire from football yet but said that he does not know where he will be playing next. De Rossi joned AS Roma in 2000 from hometown club Ostia Mare and became one of the most iconic players in the history of the club, after making 615 appearances and scoring 63 goals for them. The club confirmed the news in a statement and added that the last match for De Rossi in the Roma shirt will take place at home against Parma on the last day of the season. "Roma and I chose each other," De Rossi said in a news conference. "There is a lot of love between us, both now and in the future - even if it will be in another form." The club have offered him a job as a director but he rejected it because he felt that he still has some years as a player left. "Looking back, some specific moments I would change," he added. "But overall, I wouldn't change anything about staying loyal to this team. If I had a magic wand, I would have put a few more trophies on the mantelpiece." De Rossi won the Coppa Italia in 2007 and 2008 with AS Roma and also the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in 2004. He was elected Serie A Young Footballer of the Year in 2006 and Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year in 2009. He has scored 21 goals for the Italian national team in 117 appearances, but has retired from international football in 2017 after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup. "We will all shed tears when he pulls on the Giallorossi shirt for the last time against Parma but we respect his desire to prolong his playing career - even if, at almost 36, it will be away from Rome," said Roma president Jim Pallotta. "On behalf of everyone at Roma, I'd like to thank Daniele for his incredible dedication to this club and ensure him that our doors will remain open for him to return to the club in a new role whenever he wants." The president insisted that he did want De Rossi to remain at the club in a non-playing capacity but said that he respected the captain's decision to move on. AS Roma are currently fighting for a top-four spot in Serie A, they are three points adrift with two games left in the season. Roma are 7/1 at Bet365 to finish inside the top four this season.