West Ham United veteran right-back Pablo Zabaleta will call time on his playing career at the end of the 2018-19 season, according to Spanish publication Sport.

The 33-year-old moved to the London Stadium from Manchester City in the summer of 2017 following nine seasons at the current reigning champions, and he has been a key member of the first-team.

Zabaleta played 37 league games last term and has already featured in nine this term, but he’s not looking to extend his two-year contract when it expires at the end of the season.

The former Espanyol has played professionally for 15 years, and now wants to return to Barcelona where his Catalan journalist and model of a wife Christel Castano has remained since 2013 when they married.

Zabaleta, who will be 34 in January won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup with Manchester City, and was part of the PFA Team of the Year in 2012-13.

The versatility and experience of the former Argentina international will surely be missed at West Ham, but it seems drawing the curtain on what has been a wonderful career is inevitable come May 2019.