Former Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele appears to have retired from football aged just 34, with reports claiming that he has decided to reject a contract extension from Chinese club Guangzhou FC.
There has been no formal announcement from the player or his camp, but HLN in Belgium have said that Dembele has returned home to Antwerp with his young children, and plans to spend more time with them.
It is believed that he could have penned an extension to continue his career but, for now at least, the ex-Spurs favourite looks to have hung up his boots.
Dembele joined Guangzhou in 2019 after his seven-year stint in north London, and enjoyed the best years of his career under Mauricio Pochettino.
He also played 82 games for Belgium on the international stage, and scored five goals. Memorably, he was fielded at two World Cups and Euro 2016, but chose to step away from representing his country in 2019.
His time in the sport began with Germinal Beerschot, before he moved to Willem II and AZ Alkmaar. There, he made an impression when winning the Eredivisie and Dutch Supercut, with Fulham moving for him in 2012.
Two years later, Spurs snapped him up for a fee of £15million, having triggered the release clause in his contract. Six-and-a-half years later, he had played 249 games, with 10 goals to his name before his departure.
But if reports are to be believed, Dembele will now focus on his children, Maleec, seven, and Fellah, four.
Pochettino insisted during his time at Tottenham that Dembele ranks among the likes of Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho as one of the five football geniuses he has met and worked alongside, meanwhile.
He also sensationally claimed that the midfield general would have become one of the best players in the world had he worked under him as a teenager.
Pochettino said: 'He has started to work very hard, we are very happy with him.
'I always say, "Mousa, when I write my book I will say you are one of the genius players I have been lucky to meet".
'They are Maradona, Ronaldinho, Jay-Jay Okocha, Ivan de la Pena and and Mousa Dembele. We've always told him that if we had taken him at 18 or 19-years-old, he would have become one of the best players in the world.'