Veteran Inter Milan player Javier Zanetti has announced he will retire from active football at the end of the season to become Sporting Director at the club afterwards.

The 40 year old Argentine, who has played with Inter for 19 years, has endured an injury ladened last two years and seen playing time hard to come by.

Zanetti has played 851 official matches for Inter, including a 613 league matches, to hold the record for most appearances at the club. He is also the most capped player for the Argentina national team with 145 caps.

During his playing time, Zanetti won five league titles with Inter, four Italian Cups, the UEFA Cup in 1998 and in 2010, captained the Nerazzurri to win the UEFA Champions League and complete a historic treble, the first by an Italian side.

For Argentina, Zanetti never won a major honour with the national team, featuring at the 1998 and 2002 World Cup as well as the 1996 Olympic Games where the team lost 3-2 to Nigeria in the final.