Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm was given an emotional ovation as he waved farewell to the German club before his final career appearance.<\/p>\n
Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning captain, 33, was presented with a number of mementos before Saturday’s home win against Freiburg.<\/p>\n
Lahm played his 517th and final game for the Bundesliga champions.<\/p>\n
Midfielder Xabi Alonso, 35, and keeper Tom Starke, 36, were also presented with gifts as they prepare to retire.<\/p>\n
Bayern clinched their fifth successive Bundesliga title last month and finished 15 points clear at the top of the table after a 4-1 victory.<\/p>\n
‘Lahm is one of the all-time greats’<\/strong><\/p>\n Lahm announced in February that he would be retiring at the end of the season after spending his whole career – bar a loan spell with Stuttgart – at Bayern.<\/p>\n The full-back or holding midfielder has won almost every major domestic and European trophy with the Bavarian club, including his eighth Bundesliga title – a joint record with Bayern legends Oliver Kahn, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mehmet Scholl – this season.<\/p>\n Lahm fought back the tears when he was substituted with five minutes remaining, warmly hugging each of his team-mates before walking off to a standing ovation from the Allianz Arena.<\/p>\n He blew kisses to the home fans, then embraced manager Carlo Ancelotti and Alonso – who had already been substituted – on the touchline.<\/p>\n Lahm, who joined Bayern as an 11-year-old before making his debut in 2002, will be remembered as one of the club’s all-time greats, said chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.<\/p>\n He will be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame after the game, the first player since Kahn in 2008 to be added.<\/p>\n “He deserves this accolade, which puts him up there with the greats of FC Bayern,” said Rummenigge.<\/p>\n “Both on the pitch and off it, in his role as captain, he has been a truly important person for the club.”<\/p>\n Alonso signs off with an assist<\/strong><\/p>\n Former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder Alonso, who said in March he would retire when his contract ended, also ended a memorable career in both domestic and international football.<\/p>\n His triumphs include two Champions League wins, four domestic titles, including three with Bayern, as well as the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships with Spain.<\/p>\n A trademark diagonal pass from Alonso allowed Arjen Robben to cut inside from the right flank and open the scoring against Freiburg, before second-half goals from Arturo Vidal, Franck Ribery and Joshua Kimmich sealed the win.<\/p>\n Alonso was brought off in the 81st minute to another emotional standing ovation from the Bayern fans.<\/p>\n “Alonso is one of our best signings of recent years, a real lucky find, a gifted tactician, a highly intelligent man and one of the most uncomplicated players I’ve ever witnessed,” added Rummenigge.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm was given an emotional ovation as he waved farewell to the German club before his final career appearance. Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning captain, 33, was presented with a number of mementos before Saturday’s home win against Freiburg. Lahm played his 517th and final game for the Bundesliga champions. Midfielder Xabi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[7327,564,7328],"class_list":["post-321192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-alonso","tag-citi-sports","tag-lahm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}