Phil Neville has announced his retirement at the age of 36, clearing the way for the former England defender to make a full-time move into coaching.

Neville ended an eight-year spell with Everton, the club he joined from Manchester United in 2005 for a fee of £3.5 million, last month and has now decided to hang up his boots.

“When I made a statement that I was leaving Everton everywhere I went I seemed to be getting ‘oh you’ve been brilliant’,” he told reporters at the European Under-21 championship in Israel.

“I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to be seen as an attention seeker. In my heart I knew I wouldn’t be playing again at any level, I just wanted to drift away.”

Neville, who has been helping England U-21 manager Stuart Pearce at the European Championship, has been linked with assistant coaching jobs at United and Everton.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.