Former Barcelona forward and Swedish international Henrik Larsson (38), announced his retirement from football yesterday. The news comes nine days after the 38-year-old striker quit the Swedish national team for the second time in his career following their failure to reach the World Cup finals.

“We had obviously hoped Sweden’s greatest player down the years would play on for another season,” Helsingborg’s director of sport Jesper Jansson told the club’s official Web site. “But we respect Henrik’s decision and are incredibly grateful for everything he has done and proud to have been a part of his fantastic career.”

Larsson has been a prolific striker throughout his career, scoring over 300 goals during spells with Feyenoord, Celtic, Barcelona, Manchester United and Helsingborg. He was also capped 106 times by Sweden, netting 37 times.

He arrived at Barcelona in 2004 and played with the team for two seasons. During his time here, he won 2 La Liga titles (2004–05, 2005–06), 1 Spanish Super Cup (2005–06), and 1 UEFA Champions League title (2005–06). His most memorable performances in the blaugrana shirt was his final game in Paris during the Champions League final against Arsenal where he was substituted on and assisted both goals in the game which Barcelona won 2-1.

In the summer of 2006, he returned to his home town club of Helsingborg. Larsson netted 13 goals in 40 games for FC Barcelona.

For videos of Henrik Larsson click here.