IFFHS NEWS - ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC IN THE CLUB OF 40 !

• Nov 13, 2021
• IFFHS News

Picture : Zlatan Ibrahimovic ,on november 11, entered in the club of 40 !

Ibrahimovic enters the “Club of 40-year internationals”

On November 11, Zlatan Ibrahimovic became the 37th European footballer in the history to play for a national team after his 40th birthday.
Below we publish a ranking of such players, putting them in order of age at which they played their last international matches.
Greeks Koudas and Hatzipanagis are mentioned in the list, but not included in the ranking, since at the time of their last match they were long retired and their appearance had an exhibition nature.
The exact date of birth of Matthew Wilson (11th position in the ranking) is unknown. Only the year is known (1842). Therefore, the age at which he played in his last match can range from 41 years 54 days to 42 years 53 days.
As for Ibrahisovic, he played a full match against Greece. The event, however, turned out to be not very happy, as Sweden lost 0-2.
Apart from Zlatan, there are currently two more players playing for their national teams at age over 40 years: Ildefons Lima (Andorra) and Lee Casciaro (Gibraltar).
Lima, who will soon turn 42, got injured against England (0-5) on 9 October and was unable to play in the next two World Cup qualifiers.

	EUROPE'S
	ALL-TIME OLDEST	NATIONAL TEAM	PLAYERS
	Player	Country	Age	Date	Game
	Giorgos Koudas	Greece	48-301	20/09/1995	Yugoslavia 0-2
1	Billy Meredith	Wales	45-229	15/03/1920	England 2-1
	Vasilis Hatzipanagis	Greece	45-049	14/12/1999	Ghana 1-1
2	Georgi Petkov	Bulgaria	42-250	19/11/2018	Slovenia 1-1
3	Elisha Scott	Northern Ireland	42-200	11/03/1936	Wales 3-2
4	Stanley Matthews	England	42-103	15/05/1957	Denmark 4-1
5	Jákup Mikkelsen	Faroe Islands	41-365	15/08/2012	Iceland 0-2
6	Ildefons Lima	Andorra	41-303	09/10/2021	England 0-5
7	Roman Berezovsky	Armenia	41-233	25/03/2016	Belarus 0-0
8	Alec Morten	England	41-113	08.03.1873	Scotland 4-2
9	Dino Zoff	Italy	41-090	29/05/1983	Sweden 0-2
10	Albert Beuchat	Switzerland	41-063	14/02/1932	Italy 0-3
11	Matthew Wilson	Northern Ireland	41-054+	23.02.1884	England 1-8
12	Mario Frick	Liechtenstein	41-035	12/10/2015	Austria 0-3
13	Pat Jennings	Northern Ireland	41-000	12/06/1986	Brazil 0-3
14	Juli Sánchez	Andorra	40-356	11/06/2019	France 0-4
15	Ernest Arend	Luxembourg	40-299	01/06/1930	Belgium 4-7
16	Peter Shilton	England	40-292	07/07/1990	Italy 1-2
17	Patsy Gallagher	Ireland	40-272	13/12/1931	Spain 0-5
18	Jack Henderson	Ireland	40-254	11.04.1885	Wales 2-8
19	Serghei Stroenco	Moldova	40-237	17/10/2007	Malta 3-2
20	Billy Lacey	Ireland	40-229	11/05/1930	Belgium 3-1
21	Gábor Király	Hungary	40-228	15/11/2016	Sweden 0-2
22	Moses Russell	Wales	40-181	17/11/1928	England 2-3
23	David Weir	Scotland	40-155	12/10/2010	Spain 2-3
24	Andy Selva	San Marino	40-141	11/10/2016	Norway 1-4
25	Bogdan Lobonţ	Romania	40-138	05/06/2018	Finland 2-0
26	Jim Leighton	Scotland	40-078	10/10/1998	Estonia 3-2
27	Jerzy Dudek	Poland	40-073	04/06/2013	Liechtenstein 2-0
28	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	40-054	23/03/2018	Argentina 0-2
29	Shay Given	Ireland	40-041	31/05/2016	Belarus 1-2
30	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Sweden	40-039	11/11/2021	Georgia 0-2
31	Maik Taylor	Northern Ireland	40-037	11/10/2011	Italy 0-3
32	Billy McCracken	Northern Ireland	40-033	03/03/1923	Scotland 0-1
33	Sargis Hovsepyan	Armenia	40-012	14/11/2012	Lithuania 4-2
33	Lee Casciaro	Gibraltar	40-012	11/10/2021	Netherlands 0-6
35	Birkir Kristinsson	Iceland	40-003	18/08/2004	Italy 2-0