Former Reading left-back Ryan Bertrand has announced his retirement from professional football.

The 34-year-old, who had a very successful one season with the Royals during the 2009/10 campaign on loan from Chelsea, scored one goal in 51 appearances for the Berkshire side. 

He has not played for a club since leaving Leicester City in the summer of 2023, when the Foxes were relegated from the Premier League.

Bertrand started his career at Gillingham as a schoolboy before moving to Chelsea’s youth set-up in 2005. 

He spent one year in the academy before having various loan spells across nine years. 

This includes two separate stints at Bournemouth and Norwich City, along with spells at Oldham Athletic, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Southampton.

He would have 18 months in the Chelsea first-team between 2011 and 2012, becoming the first-ever person to make their Champions League debut in the competition’s final.

This was in 2012, which saw the Blues defeat Bayern Munich to win their first-ever European Cup. 

He eventually left Chelsea for Southampton on loan 10 years ago, where he was named in the Premier League’s Team of the Season for the 2014/15 year.

A permanent move to the South Coast followed that summer, where he played more than 200 games for the club. 

He would move to Leicester City in 2021, but only featured in 11 games across two seasons in the Midlands. 

He said: “It’s been a little while, but I get asked a lot of questions, ‘when are you coming back, what are you doing?’

“So, just to make that official I am retiring and very much looking forward to the next steps.”

Bertrand also won 19 senior England caps and was part of Roy Hodgson’s squad for Euro 2016.