"I would have liked to announce my retirement at the very last moment," Gobbi tells 24 heures. "But now, as one of my teammates [Étienne Froidevaux, see video below] unintentionally dropped the ball, I will not deny that the decision is made."
The 36-year-old defender has been the captain of LHC for the past four seasons. Throughout his career, Gobbi has suited up for four National League teams, including his youth team HC Ambrì-Piotta, Genève-Servette HC, the ZSC Lions, and most recently Lausanne HC.
"After some serious thinking last summer, I gradually came to the conclusion that the time has come for me to say stop. So it's not the current results that made me hurry to retire. On the contrary, my goal was clearly to finish my career in a different way than by participating in the placement round. To be honest, six months ago, I was convinced that we had everything in the bag, not only to qualify for the playoffs but also to play a more interesting role than the season before," he adds.
Gobbi made his National League debut with the Biancoblù in the 1998-99 season, before he left the Ticino in 2004 to join GSHC. After seven straight years with the Grenats he then moved to Zürich until summer 2013. In over 900 games in Switzerland's highest League, Gobbi has managed to record 57 goals and 143 assists.
Last Update: 02 March 2018, 08:56 PM | rlu/jca
