Nine-time world champion and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has announced his retirement from racing at the age of 42.

The current greatest of all time will hang up his Dainese leathers after the Valencia round in November after making his Grand Prix debut in 1996 for Aprilia.

“So I tell everybody, like I said during the season. I take my decision for for next year, after the summer break, and I decided to stop at the end, at the end of the season. So, unfortunately, this will be the last season, as a MotoGP rider,” said Rossi, speaking at tbe Red Bull Ring.

"Next year I will not race with the motorcycle. I do this thing for, I think, more or less 30 years. So, next year, my life will will change.

"But anyway, was great. I enjoy very much is the journey, and was really, really funny and is like, 25-26 years in the in the world championship so, it was great.

"And I had an unforgettable moments with all my team, with all the guys that work for me."

Alongside 125 and 250 titles, Rossi has seven MotoGP trophies to his name on both two and four-stroke Honda and Yamaha machinery, and is the only rider to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix. He has 89 wins from 363 starts with 55 pole positions and 199 podiums to which he will hope to add one more before 2021 is over.

Following his support class titles, Rossi graduated to the 500cc class in 2000 and won the 500cc World Championship and Suzuka Eight-hours with Honda in 2001, MotoGP titles in 2002 and 2003 and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, a feat only previously achieved by Eddie Lawson.

He lost the 2006 title with a crash at the final round at Valencia and it was won by Nicky Hayden. In 2007 Rossi finished third overall, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009.

After a 2010 season marred by a badly-broken leg at Mugello, Rossi left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season, replacing Casey Stoner and endured two losing seasons with the Italian marque.

It was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. On his return to Yamaha, he finished fourth in the standings in 2013, followed by three successive runner-up positions in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Rossi won the 2017 Dutch TT, a multiple-year winless streak followed, although he managed to finish third in the 2018 championship. Rossi was contracted to race until the end of the 2020 season with Factory Yamaha, when he would be 41 years old.