Sergio Aguero announced his retirement as a professional football player on Wednesday afternoon. The Barcelona attacker did this through a specially convened press conference, where he indicated that his heart problems prevented him from continuing his career. This officially ends a career that brought Aguero to great heights, including via Manchester City and Atlético Madrid. An overview of the most impressive figures based on statistics agency opta.
Agüero’s professional career lasted almost twenty years. The Argentinian started in the 2002/03 season with Independiente and ended his career in 2021/22. He scored his first goal against Estudiantes on behalf of Independiente in 2004. 16 years and 332 later, his goal production came to an end with his Clásico goal against Real Madrid on October 24 of this year. The Argentinian’s counter remains at 427 goals in 786 official matches. The attacker has scored in 16 different competitions against 128 different clubs. Between 2007/08 and 2019/20, he managed to score at least 20 goals in 12 of the 13 seasons, all wearing the Manchester City shirt.
Aguero had his greatest successes in the Premier League. His most famous and memorable goal came in the 2011/12 season, when he gave City the league title against Queens Park Rangers on the final day in injury time. In 2019, Aguero became the second player after Thierry Henry to achieve at least 20 goals in five consecutive seasons in the Premier League. The Argentine is fourth on the Premier League’s all-time top scorers list, behind Alan Shearer (260), Wayne Rooney (208) and Andrew Cole (187). Agüero can call himself the most accurate foreigner at the English highest level. He also holds the record for the most goals scored by one English club.
With 184 goals, he beats Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 183 goals), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, 175 goals) and Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur, 167 goals) in that list. He also needed the fewest minutes on average to score in the Premier League: 108. Henry (122), Mohamed Salah (127), Kane (128) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (128) cannot match those figures. Another fine record still held by Aguero is that of most hat-tricks. With 12 hat-tricks, the Argentinian leaves Alan Shaerer (11) and Robbie Fowler (9) behind him. Across all competitions, Aguero has racked up eighteen hat-tricks throughout his career.
The 101-time Argentina international scored the most goals in the Premier League (184), followed by LaLiga (75), the Champions League (41) and Argentina’s Primera División (23). The favorite opponents? Chelsea and Newcastle United with 15 goals. With his 36 Champions League goals on behalf of City in the Champions League, he shares the record for most goals from one English club in the billion-dollar ball with Didier Drogba. The latter also scored 36 times on behalf of Chelsea in the largest European competition. Henry and Van Nistelrooy share the second place with 35 hits on behalf of Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.