Despite a fairly illustrious career that saw him globe-trot to Argentina, South Korea and Australia, Kenyan midfielder Rashid Mahazi has opened up on why he hung his boots in December last year.The midfielder called time on his career at the age of 28 when most footballers are usually at the peak of their career as he noted that he fell out of love with the game and had severe anxiety attacks. During his seven years of professional football, Mahazi won two titles, the A-League Premiership and the Football Federation Australia (FFA) Cup back in 2014-2015 with Melbourne Victory. 🇰🇪 Kenyan midfielder Rashid Mahazi was subbed off in the 90th minute for Incheon in the 0-2 loss against Seongnan in South Korea’s K League 1.He was born to an Australian mother and Kenyan father.#FFP pic.twitter.com/vb2FM83Wfi— Friends of Football (@friendsofutball) August 9, 2020 Before bidding his professional career a farewell, Mahazi helped Incheon United beat the drop in the South Korean K League 1.The 29-year-old who was born to Kenyan father Abdul Mahazi who passed away back in 2017 and Australian mother Naomi Wood explained his decision to retire at a young age.“Through the years it gradually happened, it wasn’t a sudden thing. I think what spurred it on was this past year I had a lot of anxiety, real bad anxiety – it’s hard to say exactly where it came from,””It started when I first came back, completely not football-related at all, something happened completely irrelevant and I started having panic attacks after that for about three weeks and quite intense, to be honest,” said Mahazi in an interview with The Unlaced Podcast.The defensive midfielder who turned out for Argentine giant’s youth team River Plate during the early days of his career revealed that what spurred his decline in football passion in 2020 was the frequent anxiety attacks that he could not explain the source. So many things are compound interest.Money, intelligence, mental-wellbeing, skill, strength, fitness and on and on. Even ones dominate foot/hand…🤯🤯🤯— Rashid Mahazi (@rashidmahazi) May 27, 2020 The passing of his father in 2017 affected Mahazi as he opted for a hiatus from football to travel to Kenya which was initially planned for six months but he ended up staying six weeks, meeting over 50 family members and catching up on lost time.Money has never been a motivation for Mahazi in his football career as he added that he lost the aspiration to fuel his career further. “I was happy with where I’m at and what I’m doing. Basically, I go: ‘then what am I here for? I’m here for money. That’s what I’m here for’,”“I’d always said as a kid I would never play for money, I would never make it about money. And as soon as that became the main purpose of why I was playing, then I would stop,” noted Mahazi.Aside from football, Mahazi is also a musician and writer and is focused on studying psychology at Swinburne University back in Australia. Mahazi urged the world of football to focus more on the players’ mental well being and for players to be there for each other whenever one is going through a difficult time. Rashid Mahazi vs Newcastle Jets – 18/19 A-League Game 24 (6th April 2019) #WSW pic.twitter.com/msHPzexAl2— Western Sydney Wanderers Goals (@WSWGoals) April 7, 2019 “It’s a ruthless world, the football world. It’s not a place where people are putting their arms around you and saying, ‘it’s all right, everything’s OK’ – and that’s got to change,”“There needs to be a space in the sports world, especially in soccer – I think the NRL, AFL (lower-tier leagues in Australia) definitely do it better than we do in the A-League – but looking after the players and their mental health is not,”“That’s my experience, I haven’t seen it at all. They go, ‘yeah there’s that person you can speak to’, but it needs to be all the time,” added Mahazi. ##EDITORS_CHOICE##
