{"id":34581,"date":"2026-05-15T14:04:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34581"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:10:20","slug":"coleman-to-leave-everton-at-end-of-season-after-17-years","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/coleman-to-leave-everton-at-end-of-season-after-17-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Coleman to leave Everton at end of season after 17 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Seamus Coleman will bring the curtain down on his 17-year Everton career at the end of the \u200bseason when his contract expires, the Premier League \u200cclub said on Friday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 37-year-old right back, who joined from Irish side Sligo Rovers in January 2009, holds the club record \u200bfor most Premier League appearances with 372 from \u200bhis 433 games across all competitions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;After more than \u206017 years at this great football club, I&#8217;ve decided \u200bthis season will be my last as a player \u200bhere,&#8221; Coleman said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I want to thank the fans for their unbelievable support. You&#8217;ve helped me in more ways than \u200byou could imagine. I&#8217;ve always tried my best to \u200bput Everton Football Club first and you all mean the world \u200cto \u2060me.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He captained the side in 140 games, earning admiration from supporters who valued his commitment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, injuries have limited the defender&#8217;s impact in recent seasons, with just one Premier \u200bLeague start \u200bthis campaign\u00a0 a \u2060brief 10-minute appearance against Manchester United before being substituted.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Coleman said he would take time \u200bduring the close season to consider his \u200bfuture, \u2060with Everton offering him the option of a coaching role.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;To think I&#8217;ve gone on to make the most Premier \u2060League appearances \u200bfor Everton and to become \u200bcaptain of this great football club it was beyond my wildest dreams,&#8221; \u200bhe said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34582,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34581","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Coleman said he would take time \u200bduring the close season to consider his \u200bfuture","published_date":"","news_description":"Coleman said he would take time \u200bduring the close season to consider his \u200bfuture","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34583,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34581\/revisions\/34583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}