Matildas striker Larissa Crummer has retired from football on the spot after SK Brann’s defeat to Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, detailing her emotional reason in a live TV interview.
The 28-year-old played the full 90 minutes in her Norwegian club’s 3-1 defeat to the Spanish giants — and that was that.
Despite Brann’s domestic season only just getting underway this month, Crummer had already made the decision to end her career at the end of their European journey.
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“It is actually my last match ever. I have actually decided to quit,” she told Bergens Tidende.
“It was a rather sensitive ending. It became very sensitive when we thanked the supporters. I am happy that I can finish here with a quarter-final in the Champions League.”
Crummer packed up her life in Norway before the match and planned to fly straight home to Australia from Barcelona.
She will return to live in Brisbane to give back to her wife Jodi and their two children.
“It’s been tough,” Crummer said.
“They have put me first for a long time, now I think it is time that I put them first. The two little ones are very young — I miss a lot. I can’t wait to be back home and be part of the family again.”
Crummer has played 33 games for the Matildas, her last appearance coming in April 2023 before she missed out on the FIFA Women’s World Cup squad.
The Aussies had an opening in the starting XI when Sam Kerr went down with a long-term knee injury ahead of the Paris Olympics later this year.
But Crummer, who has spent much of her career in the A-League and only joined Brann in March 2023, will not be available.
Such is her commitment to her family that she will give up football altogether and become a plumber.
The Queenslander fought back from several surgeries on a broken leg sustained in 2019 to return to the sport two years later.
She notched up her milestone 100th A-League appearance just weeks before signing with Brann last year.
Crummer made the most of her spare time after missing out on the Matildas’ World Cup squad last year by marrying Jodi in a surprise wedding in July.
“It’s something we were always going to do and there is nothing better then a cheeky surprise for everyone,” the footballer wrote.
“I love you Jods, forever won’t be long enough.”