Marcel Desailly is seeking a new club after stressing that his departure from Chelsea and his decision to quit international football will not be followed by an announcement of his retirement.
The veteran French defender will turn 36 in September, but he believes himself capable of completing at least one more season before taking on a non-playing challenge.
He left Chelsea by mutual consent yesterday, one year before his contract was due to expire, and is set to return to France to consider his future.
He said: "Even though this announcement follows that of my retirement from the French team, the two decisions are not linked. Concerning Chelsea, since I hear a lot about this subject, it happened to be an agreeable decision between the club and myself."
"I want to thank everyone at Chelsea for the fabulous way they have gone about discussions in recent days. We part as gentlemen and that's so rare that it's worth pointing out."
Desailly will have plenty of options to consider, and a number of clubs in France and Italy are expected to lodge an interest in the former Marseille and AC Milan defensive rock.
There will also inevitably be talk of a move to Qatar, where the likes of Stefan Effenberg, Fernando Hierro and Gabriel Batistuta have picked up lucrative salaries for playing in the budding domestic league.
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
