When Valentino Rossi finishes his MotoGP care🃏er at Valencia on Sunday afternoon, tܫhe nine-time world champion is more likely to be smiling than shedding a tear.

Although the Italian, 42, frequently talks of feeling 'great emotion' at the ra🅺ce tracks, he's never cried in public and do𓆉esn't plan on starting now.

"I don’t know sincerel𒅌y 🌜what happens after Sunday's race," said Rossi, bringing the curtain down on 26-years in the world championship.

"I hope to make a g🔯ood ♋race, arrive at the end and I think I cannot predict my feelings. But usually in all the special moments I laugh and enjoy.

"I don’t cry a lot. My character is💎 like this. I hope not to cry, sincerely!"

Rossi always said that results would determine the end of his racing career, a decision he duly took after failing to meet his own targets during the o♐pening half of 2021 after switching from the factory Yamaha to satellite Petronas team.

"I always imagined this [retirement] press c♛onference and it's here at Valencia, which is the opposite of a special place for me!" he joked, referring to a circuit where he has won just twice in his career, back in 2003-2004, and twice lost the wﷺorld championship.

"I have to 🌌say it's a strange feeling. I try to act normal but you always think that from Monday will be different, will be another life.

"I try not to think in this way also because I will continue 🍌to race with cars. I will conꦗtinue as a driver. So I'll try to enjoy this moment because life will change for sure when you are not a MotoGP rider anymore."

One of the keys to Rossi's extraordinary ca🌳reer has been that, in a similar way to Basketball legend Michael Jordan, he has always been immersed in the present rather than dwelling on past success.

But si🍸nce announcing his retirement plans in August, Rossi has begun to appreciate the wider impact he has had on the sport.

"From Austria in these last months, I can understand better because bဣefore I always looked at my career in MotoGP – all the seasons and all the races - from inside," he explained.

"It's like you are in a tunnel. I think it's the same for most riders. It's very difficult to step back and understand what happens around you. Because you are concentrating on one corner, one sec♏tor, one practice, one position.

"Anyway, it's a great feeling to understand also more from outside. I'm v꧋ery proud and very happy for sure.

"I think that the most positive thing is that a lot, a lot, a lot of people started to follow MotoGP to follow my career. MotoGP became bigger, better, and more famous around the w💃orld.

"It's good to understand that during my career I became something d꧟ifferent. Something like an icon. And this is a great, great pleasure. Even if for a rider it's always more important what happens on the track. The results.

"But I think this is the be♒st thing of my career because [motorcycle racing] was always my first passion, so to help improve the sport and mak♉e a lot of people, young or old people, follow the races is a great feeling."

When previously asked to pick a song that sums up his career, Rossi amusingly selected 'neve✱r ending s𝔍tory', a choice he still stands by after questioning whether his time in MotoGP was over after two winless years at Ducati.

"I thought I was very close to the en☂d of my career, especially after 2012. I didn’t know sincerely if I had enough speed, enough power to restart and fight for a championship or win races again. But I raced for another ten years! So I think the never ending story is good," he said.

After re-joining Yamaha for 2013, Rossi went on to win ten more MotoGP races, cele🔯brate 58 more podiums and battle for the 2015 title until the final round.

And his dream for the future?

"Have a good life, enjoy, I will become a father next year. Anyway, I will remain on the tr𓃲ack [with sportscars].

"I don’t have a particular dream. My dream was to become world champion in MotoGP. And it's okay likꦉe this."