Former Uruguay star Diego Forlan (who is a special columnist for The National) announced Tuesday he is leaving Penarol after joining his boyhood club for a championship season, but said he is not ready to retire from football.

The 37-year-old forward spent just under a year with the Uruguayan side, which won the first-division league title Sunday.

He said he regretted not doing more for the team, in a season that saw him struggle to find the goal.

“I want to apologise to Penarol’s fans... because they expected a lot more of me,” he told a press conference.

More Diego Forlan

• Read his column from when he arrived at Penarol in August

• Diego’s most recent thoughts on the end of the Uruguayan season

• Diego on the contentedness of life as a club man

“I would have liked to score more goals.”

He said playing for the team – where his father, Pablo Forlan, also played – was the biggest challenge of a career that has also included stints at Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and, just before moving back home, Cerezo Osaka in Japan.

“I don’t know where I’m going to go next,” he said. But, “I want to keep playing.”

Penarol’s president, Juan Pedro Damiani, called it a “bittersweet” moment for the club.

He presented Forlan a medal for scoring the inaugural goal at the club’s new stadium in Montevideo.

Forlan, who retired from the national team last year, was one of Uruguay’s all-time greats, winning the Golden Ball for the best player of the 2010 World Cup.

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