Aug 14 (Reuters) - Former Italy ⁠and Lazio striker Ciro Immobile has retired from ⁠professional football, his club Paris FC said on ‌Friday.

"Immobile expressed his wish to devote most of his time to his loved ones after 17 years as a professional," the French club ​said in a statement.

The 36-year-old striker ⁠joined Paris FC from ⁠Bologna in February and made 12 Ligue 1 appearances, scoring ⁠twice.

He ‌scored 306 goals in 599 club matches in all competitions, also netting 17 times in 57 ⁠appearances for Italy.

The forward was part of ​Italy's Euro 2020-winning ‌squad and scored twice during the tournament, which ⁠concluded with victory ​over England in the final at Wembley in July 2021, with the tournament being postponed by a year due ⁠to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immobile enjoyed his greatest ​success during his eight seasons at Lazio, becoming the club's all-time leading scorer with 207 goals in 340 appearances. He ⁠won the Coppa Italia and two Italian Super Cups with the Rome club.

In 2020, he won the European Golden Shoe after equalling Gonzalo Higuain's single-season league record of ​36 Serie A goals, and he ⁠finished as Serie A's leading scorer four times.

He also ​played for Italian clubs Juventus, Pescara, ‌Genoa and Torino, Germany's Borussia Dortmund, ​Spain's Sevilla and Turkish side Besiktas.

(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City, editing by Pritha Sarkar)