London: Former England captain Alan Shearer announced his retirement three games early on Saturday, forced out of Newcastle's remaining Premier League matches because of a knee injury.
Shearer scored a hat-trick on his Southampton debut as a 17-year-old and helped Blackburn win its first league title for 81 years.
Playing 10 years for Newcastle, however, the former England captain couldn't bring success to his hometown club. If he'd gone to Manchester United instead, he probably would have won several league and cup titles as well as European Champions League medal.
Typically, Shearer scored on his final appearance a penalty in a 4-1 victory on Monday at neighbours Sunderland to cheer the Magpies supporters.
But the striker who netted 283 league goals in 19 seasons for Southampton, Blackburn and Newcastle, failed to bring any trophies to a club which has been without a league title triumph since 1927 and an FA Cup since 1955.
Shearer, who scored 30 times for England in 63 appearances, set milestone after milestone both in the transfer market and in the scoring lists.
He had the chance to move to Old Trafford rather than Newcastle, but opted for his hometown club in 1996 for a British record 15 million pounds (US$26.7 million).
"My dream as a kid was to play for Newcastle United and to score goals at St. James' Park," Shearer told The Sun on Saturday. "It doesn't matter that I didn't win a trophy because I did it my way and I lived the dream."
"Unless you come from the area you wouldn't understand that mentality. Playing for the club is everything. I broke Jackie (Milburn's scoring) record and no one can take that away from me. I've never had any regrets."
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"I am finished now and I have great memories. The fact I won't be able to play the last three games is disappointing, but I'm not complaining. How could I?"
Newcastle issued a brief statement on its website saying that Shearer tore the medial ligament in his left knee playing in the victory at Sunderland. That ruled him out of Saturday's game at home to West Bromwich Albion as well as matches against Birmingham and Chelsea.
While Shearer is expected to pursue careers in coaching and TV soccer analysis, Saturday's announcement brings an end to his long association with English soccer as a player.
Shearer first made his mark as a 17-year-old when he scored three times for Southampton in a 4-2 victory over Arsenal at The Dell.
Within four years, he scored on his England debut in a 2-0 victory over France and played in the 1992 European Championship in Sweden.
Moving on to Blackburn in July '92, he scored twice on his debut and formed a prolific goalscoring partnership with Chris Sutton. Rovers won the Premier League title in 1995, its first league crown since 1914.
Shearer was top scorer at Euro '96 with five goals and, despite missing long spells because of knee injuries, became the first player to pass 100 and 200 goals in Premier League soccer.
He was due to finish his career last season but decided to stay on and beat Milburn's scoring record for Newcastle of 200 goals.
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