Forman Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas officially announced the end of his playing days on Tuesday, more than a year after his last match.
The 39-year-old Casillas was with Portuguese club Porto but hadn't played competitively since a heart attack in May last year.
“What is important is the path you travel and the people who accompany you, not the destination to which it takes you,” Casillas said on Twitter. “With hard work, you will always arrive where you want. I can say, without a doubt, that it has been the path and the destination that I've always dreamed about.”
Porto former goalkeeper Iker Casillas, center right, wearing a face mask, celebrates with the players on the pitch at the end of the Portuguese League soccer match between FC Porto and Sporting CP at the Dragao stadium in Porto, Portugal, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Porto defeated Sporting 2-0 to clinch the championship with two rounds left to play. (AP PhotoLuis Vieira)
Casillas said announcing his retirement was one of the “hardest” and “most difficult” days of his career.
His contract with Porto ended after the team defeated Benfica last weekend to win the Portuguese Cup. He didn't play but celebrated with his teammates and lifted the trophy.
Casillas joined Porto in 2015 after helping Real Madrid win five Spanish league titles and three Champions League trophies. He also helped Spain win one World Cup and two European Championships.
Porto former goalkeeper Iker Casillas, center with hat, celebrates with the players on the pitch at the end of the Portuguese League soccer match between FC Porto and Sporting CP at the Dragao stadium in Porto, Portugal, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Porto defeated Sporting 2-0 to clinch the championship with two rounds left to play. (AP PhotoLuis Vieira)
Real Madrid called Casillas “one of the biggest legends of our club and of world football” and “the best goalkeeper in the history of Real Madrid and Spanish football.”
“Today one of the most important footballers in our 118 years of history calls it a day as a professional player, a player we love and admire, a goalkeeper who has made the Real Madrid legacy bigger with his work and exemplary behavior both on and off the pitch,” Real Madrid said in a statement. “He was formed here and defended our shirt for 25 years, becoming one of our most emblematic captains of all time.”
Casillas played 725 matches with Madrid's first team over 16 seasons, winning 19 titles. He joined the club at age 9.
FILE - In this Monday, May 6, 2019 file photo, Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas talks to journalists outside a hospital in Porto, Portugal. Former Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas said Monday June 15, 2020, he will not run for president of the Spanish soccer federation. Casillas said the main reason that led him to change his mind was “the exceptional social, economic and health situation that our country is suffering.” (AP PhotoLuis Vieira, File)
With Porto, Casillas won two Portuguese league titles, in addition to the Portuguese Cup and a Super Cup.
He played 167 matches for Spain and won the Under-20 World Cup.
Casillas this year contemplated running for the presidency of the Spanish soccer federation but withdrew his candidacy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An investigation into a sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The scheme generally revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers would then place big bets against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.” The indictment suggests that many others — including unnamed players — had a role in the scheme but weren’t charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
The varying charges against the 26 defendants, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, include bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy.
Concerns about gambling and college sports have grown since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on the practice, leading some states to legalize it to varying degrees.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA games as recently as January 2025.
The fixers’ scheme grew to involve more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, who then rigged and attempted to rig more than 29 games, prosecutors said.
They wagered millions of dollars, generating “substantial proceeds” for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes, prosecutors said, with payments to players typically ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
Prosecutors named more than 40 schools that were involved in games that were targeted by the scheme.
Rigged games included those played by teams in major conferences, such as Big East and Atlantic 10, prosecutors said.
Some were games against nationally ranked programs while some were playoff games, including the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second round of the Southland Conference championship.
Some of the allegedly targeted teams were Tulane University, Buffalo State University, DePaul University, Robert Morris University, University of Southern Mississippi, Abilene Christian University, Eastern Michigan State University and the University of New Orleans.
Players often recruited teammates to cooperate by playing badly, sitting out or keeping the ball away from players who weren’t in on the scheme to prevent them from scoring. Sometimes the attempted fix failed, meaning the fixers lost their bets.
To entice players, fixers would text photos of stacks of cash. In one case, a fixer encouraged a player to recruit a St. Louis University teammate by texting him one such photo: “send that to him if he bite he bite if he don’t so be it lol,” the indictment said.
Four of the players charged — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Oumar Koureissi and Camian Shell — played for their current teams in the last few days, although the allegations against them do not involve this season, but the 2023-24 season.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division I NCAA schools during 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Five others last played in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another, former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, played in the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2022-23 season.
The remaining five defendants were described as “fixers” who recruited players and placed bets. They include two men who prosecutors say worked in the training and development of basketball players. Another was a trainer and former coach, one was a former NCAA player and two were described as gamblers, influencers and sports handicappers.
One fixer reassured another by texting him there were no guarantees “in this world but death taxes and Chinese basketball,” court papers said.
At the end of the Chinese Basketball Association's 2022-23 season, fixers put nearly $200,000 in bribe payments and shared winnings from rigged games into Blakeney's storage locker in Florida, authorities said.
In many instances, the defendants’ wagers on the rigged games were successful. “The sportsbooks would not have paid out those wagers had they known that the defendants fixed those games,” the indictment said.
One betting scandal after another has rocked the sports world, where gambling revenue topped $11 billion for the first three-quarters of last year, according to the American Gaming Association. That’s up more than 13% from the prior year, the group said.
The NCAA does not allow athletes or staff to bet on college games, but it briefly allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports last year before rescinding that decision in November.
The indictment follows a series of NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans this year for bets that sometimes involved their own teams and their own performances. And the NCAA has said that at least 30 players have been investigated over gambling allegations. More than 30 people were also charged in last year’s sprawling federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional basketball.
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed.
David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against 20 people including 15 former college basketball players, in what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
