MK Dons announce Dean Lewington will depart Stadium MK after more than 20 years at the club.
Lewington has been at the club captain since 2008, marking himself as a Dons legend currently sitting on 915 competitive appearances for the club.
He has been a professional footballer since the age of 18 and will now look to use his playing experience as help to get his coaching career underway where he has been working towards his badges.
Dean has won promotion three times with MK Dons and the left-back was chosen as the club’s player of the decade in 2014.
He is the clubs longest serving playing and he has certainly seen the ups and downs at his time at the club.
Lewington has suffered several relegations with the club, however he has been involved in some of the clubs’ best moments such as winning the EFL Trophy at Wembley in 2007/08 against Grimsby Town and winning Manchester United 4-0 in the League Cup in the 2014/15 season as well as winning promotion to the championship later that season.
Speaking to MK Citizen, The Dons legend admitted “It’s time to move on” and ‘is the right time to hang up his boots and end a 22-year playing career’.
Lewington began his career with Wimbledon when they played at the national hockey stadium and then stayed on at the club when it was renamed Milton Keynes Dons.
He says he will “miss the buzz of being a player” but at the age of 40 he knows he must move on.
The Dons are planning a special send off for Dean Lewington, in their final game of this League 2 season at home against Grimsby Town on the 26th of April.
The almost 41-year-old played his first league game as an 18-year-old for Wimbledon FC against Sheffield Wednesday in April 2003, just a few months before the club relocated Milton Keynes.
“It’s such a fantastic club. I’ve poured my life into it for 20 years and it saddens me to see where it is now.
“There is potential for it to be so much more, and I would like to be involved in that, but whatever comes, we’ll wait and see.” Lewington said when speaking to BBC Sport
Lewington’s unmatched loyalty can never be taken away from him and he remains the English football League’s longest serving player.
