Japanese baseball managers, players, fans and media showered with praise former New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui Friday as he announced his retirement after 20 years in Japanese and US baseball.

Some hoped the 38-year-old outfielder would remain in the game and one day manage Japan's hugely popular Yomiuri Giants - his club for his first 10 professional years before a high-profile move to the US major leagues.

"Thank you, glorious Godzilla," the Yomiuri Shimbun said in its evening edition hours after Matsui, named after the world-famous Japanese movie monster, bade farewell at a news conference in New York.

Matsui, who played for three different clubs over the last three seasons after becoming the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, said he had not been able to produce good results in the past two years due to nagging knee problems.

"I felt it was the end of a great Matsui era," said Giants manager Tatsunori Hara, who used Matsui as the key fourth batter in 2002.

The Giants won the Japan Series title that year and Matsui left for the Yankees the next season. The Tokyo team also won the title in 2012 under Hara.

Giants owner Kojiro Shiraishi said he would "back up" Matsui if he had plans to study the sport's management and contribute to Japan's baseball world.

The daily Nikkan Sports, devoting four pages - including the front - to Matsui in its morning edition which was published before the announcement, said in a headline that he was due to "bring Godzilla II to the Giants".

It estimated he had earned $84 million in salary over 10 years in the United States, in addition to 2.3 billion yen ($27 million) paid to him by the Giants over 10 years.

After the Yankees, Matsui played for one year each with the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics. He appeared in 34 major league games for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012, batting 147 with two home runs and seven RBIs.

He hit 282 with 175 homers and 760 RBIs in his major league career.

AFP - Global Times