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Cape Town - Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil full-back Maxwell has announced his retirement from international football with immediate effect.
Having spent much of his professional career being snubbed by the Selecao, Maxwell finally earned his first call-up to the national team, after he was given a chance to impress by former Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Some eye-catching performances for Les Parisiens saw him participate in his first major tournament with the national team at the 2014 World Cup on home soil, picking up his 10th and final cap in the 3-0 third-place play-off loss to the Netherlands.
Citing his age and fierce competition for places in the national team set-up, Maxwell has chosen to call time on his international career and focus on his club but revealed he will look back on his time as part of A Selecao with fondness.
"At 33, and with the competition in the squad, the Selecão is over for me," the former Ajax man told is quoted as saying by Ligue 1's official website.
"The experience at the World Cup in Brazil was fantastic in the beginning, but the pressure and the economic context ended up playing against us," explained Maxwell, who made his only start of the tournament in the third-place play-off against the Netherlands (a 3-0 loss).
"Still, I have wonderful memories of that time even though the loss to Germany (7-1 in the semi-finals) was a catastrophe. Really the difference between the two teams wasn't reflected by the scoreline.
"The first week of holidays in Brazil after the World Cup was pretty tough going, but after that we all spoke about it in the dressing room at PSG. Anyway, we're professionals and we need to turn the page and show a positive attitude for our club."
