OFFICIAL: Javi Navarro Retires

By: Anthony | May 21st, 2009

After two years of attempting to recover from his horrid knee injury, our infamous captain has decided to hang up his boots.

Two days ago, Javi came to a decision that he would never be able to regain full fitness in order to play competitively in La Liga again. It truly is a sad day for all Sevillistas who have not only lost one of our best defenders but our leader and captain.

Monchi and Joaquín Caparros brought Javi Navarro to the club back in 2001 when we were a newly promoted side with the most limited of budgets. The then 27 year old was brought in with hopes of bringing “experience” to the side; I wonder if it ever crossed his mind that he would be where he is today, 5 trophies later.

Not many former captains can look back on their career with their club and say that they lead them to 5 major honours including 2 UEFA Cups, 1 UEFA Supercopa, 1 Copa del Rey and 1 Supercopa de España. Truly the star of our golden age where we were ranked the number one team in all of Europe for 2 consecutive years.

Javi established himself as one of La Liga’s hardmen during his 8 years in Nervión with his no nonsense tackling and aggressive mentality. He helped us qualify for the Champions League for the 2007/2008 season but suffered his injury in the process and never fulfilled his dream of lifting the only major European honour he hadn’t achieved with us in Sevilla.

Regardless, Navarro said he hopes to stay on in Sevilla, hopefully landing a coaching role. He had that hunger, desire and passion that we seem to currently lack and somehow integrating him in the team again would only be beneficial.

We have yet to replace Javi in terms of captaincy with Palop not exactly being the best fit in my eyes and that may be one reason for our lack of motivation out on the pitch since Navarro’s absence.

Looking back at his 8 years with us Javi said that winning the first UEFA Cup was his fondest memory because it set the stage for Sevilla to be known in Europe and because it was the beginning of something very special.

I still get goosebumps every time I watch this video and while it doesn’t necessarily highlight Navarro, just look how inspired we looked on the pitch – Javi was the driving force behind that, that was his team to lead.

There comes a time in life where you have to say goodbye, this case is harder than usual. A true legend in every way, the symbol of Sevilla Fútbol Club and the greatest captain this club has ever seen. Definitely a massive part of the history of our club and no one can forget what he has done and the greatness he has helped achieve.

¡Qué grande Javi!
¡¡El mejor capitán del mundo!!