The most iconic ‘last dances’ in the history of sports

It will be a real luxury for Málaga that one of the best athletes in the history of Spain, and also the world, Rafa Nadal, puts an end to his professional career at the Martín Carpena. This personal decision by the Balearic tennis player will direct all the spotlights to the Parque Litoral neighborhood, where a large banner that says ‘Thank you, Rafa’ appears on the façade of the Ciudad de Málaga, in front of the Palacio de los Deportes, a space where important personalities from the world of politics, film and sport will gather for the Final 8 of the Davis Cup. Nobody wants to miss this historic moment.

In this report, SUR remembers how other sports myths were removed. Some of the best in the world for the general public, capable of leaving their mark and marking a before and after in their disciplines. Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Diego Armando Maradona, Muhammad Ali and Michael Phelps retired in style; some still in top form and others already back, although in a very iconic way and with the mystique that characterized them when they became legends.

Roger Federer, one of Nadal’s biggest rivals throughout his career and also one of the three dominators of world tennis in recent decades (along with the Balearic Islands and Djokovic), put an end to his career at the 2022 Laver Cup, the tennis competition that pits teams from Europe and the rest of the world against each other. The Swiss’s last dance took place with Nadal as a partner, in a match held in London. The Federer-Nadal couple fell (6-4, 6-7(2) and 9-11) to Tiafoe and Sock, although the result was the least important in a match like this. As will happen with Nadal in Malaga, his staunchest rivals accompanied him at the event.

The sports and personal history of the man who most likely was (and is) the most talked about basketball player in history is full of nuances and details. Your withdrawal(s) are an important part of it. The one from Brooklyn hung up his boots three times. The first, in 1993, he did it again in 1998 and in 2001 he returned to the court to play his last game in the NBA on April 16, 2003. As a player for the Washington Wizards, after an entire career with the Chicago Bulls, ‘His Airness’ retired permanently on the field of the Philadelphia 76ers. It seemed that Jordan was not going to play in the last quarter of that match, but the demands of the public, who sang “we love Jordan”, caused him to jump in the last quarter, receiving a loud ovation from the public that lasted three minutes of the clock. That season, however, every Wizards game was presented as a tribute to the New Yorker.

‘Pelusa’ retired in style, in an iconic setting and in a cult match: the Argentine Superclásico. He did it as a Boca Juniors player at River Plate’s stadium, El Monumental, on October 25, 1997. Then, no one knew that it would be Maradona’s last game, as he played 45 minutes and won (1-2 ) against the millionaire team, the maximum rival of the xeneizes. The Argentine genius, so admired and controversial, announced that he was leaving the ball on his 37th birthday, leaving the Argentine people without an opportunity to say goodbye to him knowing that it would be the last time. “The soccer player is over, no one is sadder than me,” said the one who for many was (and is) the best player in history.

The most iconic boxer in history, Muhammad Ali, the most media-worthy of all and one of the promoters of this art being first coined the term ‘noble’, fought his last fight in the ring on December 11, 1981, despite announcing his retirement (ultimately ‘failed’) two years earlier. His last fight took place in the city of Nassau, in the Bahamas. He faced 27-year-old Jamaican Trevor Berbick and the Kentucky boxer fell by unanimous decision of the judges at the end of the ten rounds. At that time, Ali showed signs of physical decline and also symptoms of Parkinson’s, a disease that was diagnosed just three years later. On December 12, 1981, one day after his last dance in the ring, he announced his final retirement. The boxer was a four-time heavyweight world champion.

Michael Phelps, ‘The Shark of Baltimore’, is the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals under his belt (of which 23 are gold). The swimmer announced that he would retire after the 2012 London Games, but he returned to compete in the next Olympic event, in Rio 2016, where he won five golds and one silver. He retired as a father (he was 31 years old) and flagging his country at the most important festival in world sport, at the level he had always performed and knowing how to say goodbye while still being a true competitive animal.