2005/6 promotion winner calls it a day.
One of Colchester United's 2005/6 promotion winning heroes, Richard Garcia, has announced his retirement from professional football.
Richard, who joined the U's from West Ham, where he had started at the age of 15.
Having won the FA Premier Youth League and FA Youth cup, Richard made 21 appearances for the Hammers and 18 on loan at Leyton Orient before joining the U's under the management of Phil Parkinson in September 2004.
His dynamic forward play quickly won the appreciation of the U's supporters and, after making 30 appearances and scoring six goals in his first season, the 2005/6 campaign was to be a memorable one for Richard and his teammates.
Attacking the season on three fronts - League One, the FA Cup and the Football League Trophy - the U's were up at the right end of the league table thanks to a remarkable winning run either side of the festive period.
Richard's game clincher against Nottingham Forest at Layer Road, along with his double aganst Port Vale that sent the U's top of League One came in a hot streak for the Aussie, as the Essex side sealed promotion to the Championship for the first time in their history.
And he wrote his name in the club's annals as he scored the U's first goal in the second tier, smashing home into the roof of the net against Birmingham.
In a memorable campaign in 2006/7, which saw the U's chase down the play-offs for much of the season, Richard scored seven more goals.
He was one of a number of players to move on that summer, and again played a key part as he scored seven goals to help Hull City earn promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.
In the next five years, he went on to make over 100 league and cup appearances for the Tigers, before returning back to Australia in 2012 to join Melbourne Heart.
Spells at Sydney FC and Minnesota United followed before a return to his hometown of Perth in the summer of 2014.
With the Australian season recently concluding, Richard retires after making over 300 professional appearances, along with seventeen international caps for his country.
We wish him all the best in his post-football career.