IFFHS WORLD RANKING - PLAYERS WITH MOST GAMES IN XXI CENTURY

• Jan 11, 2023
• History Statistics

Picture : Cristiano Ronaldo leads the ranking.

IFFHS World Ranking: Players with Most Games in XXI Century

We update the ranking of most experienced players in the current century, as it stands after the end of 2022.
Cristiano Ronaldo, on the eve of his new challenge in Asia, leads it with 1145 games, having more than 100-game advantage to others. 
Before the past year, CR7 was yet the only one in the world football to reach 1000 level games for clubs and country. In 2022, two new players have crossed the mark, Dani Alves and Lionel Messi.
Another two, Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric, have reached 900 appearances on top level. So, the number of players with 900+ games in XXI century increased to 12, including 9 still active (taken bold) and 3 retired.
We have also included in the table further 11 players who are below 900 games in XXI but have amassed this sum adding the games played in XX century, with the condition that significant majority of their games (not less than 65 percent) were held in XXI. Such players can be conditionally taken as “players of XXI century”.
One of them is Pepe Reina who has played his 900th top level game for Villarreal just on the last day of 2022. But he started his senior career yet in 2000, so his first 6 matches came in XX century (and next 894 in XXI).
So, along with the main ranking (Total XXI) with 12 members we put also an extended parallel ranking Total Career where the mentioned category of players is included as well. 
This parallel ranking is led by Rogério Ceni (1214 games) while Cristiano Ronaldo is 2nd in it.

	PLAYERS WITH	MOST GAMES
	IN XXI CENTURY
	Player	Country	Games				Total	Total	Total
			NL	NC	ICC	NT	XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	651	93	205	196	1145		1145
2	Dani Alves	Brazil	620	115	172	126	1033		1033
3	Lionel Messi	Argentina	559	102	170	172	1003		1003
4	Iker Casillas	Spain	585	57	171	161	974	74	1048
5	João Moutinho	Portugal	563	107	142	146	958		958
6	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	603	72	152	121	948	9	957
7	Luka Modrić	Croatia	569	69	147	162	947		947
8	Yasuhito Endō	Japan	606	117	66	152	941	84	1025
9	Xavi	Spain	536	95	174	132	937	80	1017
10	Sergio Ramos	Spain	534	70	151	180	935		935
11	Andrés Iniesta	Spain	552	98	152	131	933		933
12	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	675	71	149	9	904	310	1214
	Javier Zanetti	Argentina	449	50	128	90	717	383	1100
	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	528	36	133	160	857	212	1069
	Raúl	Spain	454	57	115	62	688	346	1034
	Frank Lampard	England	507	105	124	105	841	169	1010
	Timmy Simons	Belgium	571	64	116	94	845	99	944
	Oswaldo Sánchez	Mexico	512	13	57	88	670	269	939
	Zé Roberto	Brazil	492	57	121	38	708	228	936
	Thierry Henry	France	422	39	96	98	655	262	917
	Petr Čech	Czech Republic	552	75	138	124	889	20	909
	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	553	60	99	104	816	87	903
	Pepe Reina	Spain	626	48	184	36	894	6	900

All games at top senior level are counted (top national divisions, national cups, official international club tournaments, official games between national teams).
Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision).

Period:
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2022 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2022 (for the ranking Total Career).

Abbreviatures:
NL – National League
NC – National Cups
ICC – International Club Competitions
NT – National Team