ASUNCION, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar has announced he will retire from international football after his team's June friendly against Japan in Austria.

The 40-year-old is expected to play only a few minutes of the June 12 match in the western city of Innsbruck as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury.

"I am grateful to be able to end my career this way," Villar told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm never going to leave the national team. I'll be saying goodbye as a player but I hope to always have a relationship with the national team."

Villa has been capped 119 times for Paraguay in an international career spanning 19 years.

He was a member of the team that reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and was named the best goalkeeper of the 2011 Copa America.