Aaron Mooy, the star of Huddersfield Town’s rise to the Premier League, has retired from football at the age of just 32.
The Australian midfielder said: “While it feels really sad to be leaving the game, I just feel the time is right.”
Mooy made 42 appearances for Celtic in last season’s domestic treble-winning campaign and had a year left on his contract.
The Bhoys’ new manager Brendan Rodgers said he was “disappointed” but added: “I am delighted for Aaron that he has gone out on a real high after making such a telling contribution to Celtic last season and that, together with all his other achievements, should be a real source of pride to him.”
Mooy is fondly remembered in Huddersfield for the part he taking David Wagner’s team into the Premier League in 2016-17, then keeping them there for a second season against all the odds.
Six days after signing for Manchester City, he was loaned to the Terriers. Scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Leeds United in September was sure to make him popular, and he rounded the season off by scoring in the penalty shoot-out against Reading which took Huddersfield into the top division. He was voted Huddersfield’s player of the season.
Although they had played plenty of top-flight football, it was the first time the Terriers had competed in the Premier League and the assumption was that they would be relegated at the first attempt.
Town used around £8m of their new-found wealth to buy Mooy, and he was involved in two of the goals in an opening-day 3-0 win over Crytal Palace, finding the net himself in a 1-0 win over Newcastle United the following week. He also scored in Huddersfield’s 2-1 win over Manchester United.
In all he scored four goals during the campaign, starting 34 of 38 Premier League games as Town finished four points above the relegation zone.
The next season was much more difficult, Huddersfield relegated after losing a burnt-out Wagner midway through.
Mooy joined Brighton and Hove Albion at the end of it, initially on loan.
The Sydney-born player, who came through the youth rnaks at Bolton Wanderers but made his first-team bow with St Mirren, won 57 caps for Australia, including being an ever-present at last winter’s World Cup.
