Yahoo Finance Roy Hodgson not ready to confirm retirement from football after Crystal Palace departure: ‘Never say never!’
Roy Hodgson has stopped short of saying he will retire from football after it was announced he will step down as Crystal Palace manager at the end of the season.
But the 73-year-old says he is not leaving Palace “with the idea of putting myself back on the market and trying to get another job”.
Asked whether he could one day return to a role in football, Hodgson said: “One never knows.
“I think it is a dangerous thing to do when you still feel good about yourself and you still enjoy your life in football, it is dangerous to start making the bold statement about retirement. I really do not know.
“I am certainly not leaving Crystal Palace with the idea of putting myself back on the market and trying to get another job.
“I really am stepping down from the club and stepping away from football for a while. But who knows what the future will bring.
“I am quite excited by the fact that I still have a future that I am looking forward to, whether that be in football or elsewhere. And I will wait and see what happens.
“It is a never say never moment.
“My thoughts at the moment are on some time to myself and with my wife and my son.
“I would like to travel, which of course you cannot do when you are in full-time management. I am looking forward to that. And then really I am quite interested to see what life is going to be like and see what I like doing.
“It is not going to be easy to say goodbye to something I have been doing on a daily basis for 45 years but I am confident, with the support of my wife and my son, I will find things I enjoy doing.”
Explaining his decision to leave Palace, Hodgson said: “It is a decision which has not been taken overnight.
“It has been really brewing for a long time and I have had it in the back of my mind that it is the right time to leave the club and maybe to leave football for a while at the end of the season.
“I am pleased that despite speculation over the last two or three months we have still been able to keep things on an even keel and it looks like we are going to end the season in a very dignified way.
“And that was an important to me, I did not want end this important period of my career at Crystal Palace in a way that wasn’t reflective of what we have been doing over the last few years.”
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