Nesta ends decade at Milan

Former Italy defender Alessandro Nesta will leave AC Milan this summer after ten years with the club.

The 36-year-old former S.S. Lazio captain joined Milan ahead of the 2002/03 season and immediately helped the Rossoneri to win the UEFA Champions League, repeating the trick in 2007 having lost the final two years earlier.

"This is my last season with Milan, I'm leaving," he told a press conference on Thursday. "It's difficult to play every game when there are so many during a season and I don't like to sit on the bench. I would like to have a different experience while feeling important for my team on the pitch."

Capped 78 times by Italy and a FIFA World Cup winner in 2006, Nesta also claimed the Scudetto twice with Milan adding to one at Lazio. "I took this decision after spending ten wonderful years with this great club where I had the chance to meet fantastic people and win many trophies," he added.

Nesta has not yet signed any contract with a new club but admitted he would like an experience in the United States; "on the other side of the ocean" to use his words. "I won't quit because I still feel very good physically, I just can't play any longer as often as I did the past," Nesta said. "The club offered me the possibility to stay for another year but I prefer to move where football is less frenetic."

Milan end their 2011/12 campaign at home to Novara Calcio on Sunday knowing they will finish second in Serie A behind Juventus and enter next season's UEFA Champions League in the group stage.