Celtic legend Scott Brown has officially announced his retirement from football at the age of 36 and has expressed his desire to become a manager.
The former Hoops captain spent his entire career playing in Scotland, starting out at Hibernian before leaving in 2007 to move to Parkhead where he enjoyed 14 trophy-laden seasons.
Brown finished his career as a player-coach with Aberdeen, joining the Dons in March before leaving his role after just nine months with the club.
The 55-cap Scotland international has now decided to hang up his boots and has revealed that he is 'fully focused' on stepping into management.
"It's been a very difficult decision to call time on my playing career but I'll be 37 next month and I feel the time is right for me to announce that I'm retiring in order to focus fully on becoming a manager," Brown told the Daily Record.
"It's the end of one chapter but the start of a new one and I'm excited about what the future might hold.
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"Obviously I will cherish some amazing moments from my time and none better than winning so many trophies during my years at Celtic. So I'm delighted that the club is now about to celebrate winning the title back."
Speaking about his time at Celtic, Brown added: "It was always an honour for me going out there as captain, knowing the lads were listening to you in that huddle, with 50,000 fans behind us wanting us to do our best.
"Yes my last season didn't go that well but that's football. You'd take nine out of 10 titles all day long! So I'll just have to take that one on the chin. But you learn lessons from the tough times too and I think everyone at the club took those lessons on board."
Brown made a total of 787 appearances in all competitions for Hibs, Celtic and Aberdeen across a 19-year playing career.
The tough-tackling midfielder leaves the game as one of the most decorated footballers in Scotland, lifting a total of 23 major trophies, including nine successive Scottish Premiership titles between 2011-12 and 2019-20.
Brown is understood to have been interviewed for the St Mirren job earlier this year, and has also been linked with the vacancy at Championship outfit Raith Rovers.
Oliver Thomas
