Longevity is an interesting aspect of football because rarely does a player continue to play past the age of 35 due to physical toll and advancement of the game’s technical aspect. Only a handful of players are able to play competitively at such an advanced age in football terms, and one of them is Bayern Munich’s old boy Roque Santa Cruz.
An article on Tz states that the Paraguayan striker, possibly a teammate of Ronaldinho and as old as Zlatan, signed with local team Club Nacional in January at the age
of 44! He played with Bayern for eight years, having arrived there in 1999 (I wasn’t even born then). So, if anyone should be called a boomer by INNN, it’s him.
More impressively, as I recently found out, Zé Roberto—another ex-Bayern player—only retired from the sport in 2017, at age 43. At this rate, Roque is out to match Gianluigi Buffon’s retirement age of 45 but will take some effort to keep up with Japanese legend Kazuyoshi Miura (born 1967), still active at age 58. David Ginola was born on the same year and he’s been retired for 24 years.
Some other interesting facts about older football players (from an article on si.com, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there):
- Oldest player to play in a game: Ezzeldin Bahader, Egypt. He was aged 74 in 2020 when he turned out for 6th of October SC and his feat is Guinness World Records verified.
- Oldest active football player: Robert Carmona, Uruguay. He currently captains Hacele Un Gol a la Vida; also holds record for longest professional career ever at 45 years and counting.
Right: who else is part of the “unction”?
