ILDEFONS LIMA BECAME THE FIRST IN HISTORY
Ildefons Lima set new age and span records
Andorran defender Ildefons Lima, having entered the pitch yesterday as a late substitute in the Euro 2024 qualifier vs Switzerland (1-2), set several world and European records.
*Lima became the first player in history to take part in 7 editions of the European Championship, including qualifications (from 1998 to 2024).
*Lima broke the record for oldest player in the history of the tournament (43 years 188 days), and he did it by almost 2 years at once.
The previous record was set in March of this year by Gibraltar player Lee Casciaro (then 41 years 179 days, now he extended his rate to 41 years 260 days after yesterday’s appearance vs France).
*Lima became the first player in history to have performed for the national team during 25+ years. The gap between his first and last (at the moment) matches is 25 years 359 days. This is a new world record.
The old record held for over 100 years. It belonged to the legendary Welshman Billy Meredith, whose career in the national team spanned 24 years 365 days (he missed just 1 day to reach 25 years!)
Lima has played for Andorra for the first time since June 2022.
His compatriot Marc Pujol also shows a rare longevity. This year he climbed to the 3rd line of the historical rating with 23 years 50 days of experience in the national team. He was also called up for the June matches but sidelined in yesterday's game against Switzerland.
The rating of players with the longest experience in the national team does not include several of those who artificially increased it by participating in an exhibition or testimonial match many years after the end of their career (Weah, Koudas, Bashar Abdullah, Ivan Hurtado etc.).
| PLAYERS WITH | LONGEST | CAREER | IN NATIONAL | TEAM | |||
| Player | Country | Span | First Game | Last Game | |||
| 1 | Ildefons Lima | Andorra | 25-359 | 22/06/1997 | Estonia 1-4 | 16/06/2023 | France 0-3 |
| 2 | Billy Meredith | Wales | 24-365 | 16.03.1895 | Ireland 2-2 | 15/03/1920 | England 2-1 |
| 3 | Marc Pujol | Andorra | 23-050 | 06/02/2000 | Albania 0-3 | 28/03/2023 | Kosovo 1-1 |
| 4 | Stanley Matthews | England | 22-228 | 29/09/1934 | Wales 4-0 | 15/05/1957 | Denmark 4-1 |
| 5 | Juli Sánchez | Andorra | 22-210 | 13/11/1996 | Estonia 1-6 | 11/06/2019 | France 0-4 |
| 6 | Pat Onstad | Canada | 22-095 | 18/02/1988 | Bermuda 0-0 | 24/05/2010 | Argentina 0-5 |
| 7 | Essam El-Hadary | Egypt | 22-092 | 25/03/1996 | South Korea 1-1 | 25/06/2018 | Saudi Arabia 1-2 |
| 8 | Hussein Abdulghani | Saudi Arabia | 22-062 | 19/09/1996 | Zambia 2-1 | 20/11/2018 | Jordan 1-1 |
| 9 | Pat Jennings | Northern Ireland | 22-058 | 15/04/1964 | Wales 3-2 | 12/06/1986 | Brazil 0-3 |
| 10 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | Sweden | 22-052 | 31/01/2001 | Faroe Islands 0-0 | 24/03/2022 | Belgium 0-3 |