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ESPN staff 8y

FC Dallas' Bakary Soumare announces retirement on 30th birthday

FC Dallas defender Bakary Soumare says he will retire at the end of the season because of recurring injuries.

Soumare annnounced he was ending his career with an Instagram post on Monday, his 30th birthday.

"Recent health setbacks have made this a necessity," he wrote.

Soumare, a former Mali international, played in college at Virginia and was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft. He played with the Chicago Fire until moving to France with Boulogne in 2009.

After a loan spell with Karlsruher in Germany, he returned to MLS, where he played for Philadelphia, Chicago and Montreal, before moving to Dallas in a midseason trade.

The injuries prevented him from making an appearance for FC Dallas, who have advanced to the Western Conference finals in the MLS Cup playoffs.

"Soccer -- football to some of you -- has provided me with an abundance of good fortune and riches, far behind what any child born in Mali, West Africa in 1985 could have imagined," he wrote.

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