Chivas USA defender Carlos Bocanegra to retire after this season

Chivas USA defender Carlos Bocanegra, who has been a captain of the U.S. national team in the World Cup, said Thursday he plans to retire as a player after this season, his 15th in professional soccer.

“I’m still hungry for the game and I want to play, but unfortunately you can’t play forever,” Bocanegra, 35, said in a statement.

“I was thinking about this in the off-season and it took me about six months to come to a final decision,” he said.

A native of Upland, Bocanegra began his pro career with Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire after being drafted out of UCLA in 2000.

In 2004 he moved to Europe, where during the next decade he played for Fulham FC in the English Premier League and later with teams in France, Scotland and Spain.

At the same time he was a regular on the U.S. men’s national team and played in two World Cups, in 2006 and 2010.

Bocanegra returned to Southern California and the MLS in mid-2013 when he joined Chivas USA, which shares its home venue, StubHub Center in Carson, with the Galaxy.

On Twitter, U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati congratulated Bocanegra “on an amazing career. Couldn’t have asked for a better person to serve as the #USMNT captain.”