THE WORLD CLUB 1000 GAMES
Picture : Brazilian Fabio is the first always active player in the Ranking.
“Club 1000+ games”: updated ranking
On the occasion of Luka Modrić reaching 1000 top-level games (on 28 October), we publish an updated world ranking for players with most top-level games in the whole history of football.
Now the “Club 1000+ games” includes 21 members. Six of them are active players (counting also Dani Alves who hadn’t chance to play due to his circumstances since the beginning of 2023).
Rogério Ceni is a record holder with 1225 games but his record is already in danger as Fábio and Cristiano Ronaldo came already quite close to it.
| PLAYERS WITH | MOST | GAMES | |||||||||||
| Player | Games | Country | Period | NL | RL | NC | OC | IP | MI | OI | NT | OS | |
| 1 | Rogério Ceni | 1 225 | Brazil | 1993-2015 | 575 | 307 | 67 | 74 | 185 | 1 | 16 | ||
| 2 | Peter Shilton | 1 217 | England | 1966-1996 | 848 | 87 | 117 | 29 | 8 | 125 | 3 | ||
| 3 | Fábio | 1 192 | Brazil | 1997- | 662 | 307 | 103 | 6 | 114 | ||||
| 4 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 1 191 | Portugal | 2002- | 677 | 72 | 24 | 209 | 6 | 203 | |||
| 5 | Roberto Carlos | 1 090 | Brazil | 1991-2015 | 572 | 145 | 61 | 15 | 172 | 125 | |||
| 6 | Gianluigi Buffon | 1 070 | Italy | 1995-2013 | 675 | 41 | 11 | 167 | 176 | ||||
| 7 | Ray Clemence | 1 069 | England | 1965-1988 | 712 | 81 | 106 | 107 | 61 | 2 | |||
| 8 | Javier Zanetti | 1 067 | Argentina | 1993-2014 | 684 | 71 | 7 | 162 | 143 | ||||
| 9 | Dani Alves | 1 056 | Brazil | 2001- | 597 | 29 | 94 | 38 | 172 | 126 | |||
| 10 | Iker Casillas | 1 048 | Spain | 1999-2019 | 626 | 48 | 14 | 193 | 167 | ||||
| 11 | Pat Jennings | 1 046 | Northern Ireland | 1963-1986 | 709 | 84 | 75 | 55 | 4 | 119 | |||
| 12 | Lionel Messi | 1 045 | Argentina | 2004- | 584 | 83 | 21 | 172 | 7 | 178 | |||
| 13 | Glenn Ferguson | 1 041 | Northern Ireland | 1987-2011 | 646 | 80 | 266 | 26 | 18 | 5 | |||
| 14 | Raúl | 1 034 | Spain | 1994-2015 | 685 | 52 | 25 | 170 | 102 | ||||
| 15 | Paolo Maldini | 1 028 | Italy | 1985-2009 | 648 | 72 | 7 | 175 | 126 | ||||
| 16 | Yasuhito Endō | 1 028 | Japan | 1998- | 675 | 51 | 84 | 62 | 4 | 152 | |||
| 17 | Ryan Giggs | 1 027 | Wales | 1990-2014 | 672 | 74 | 55 | 162 | 64 | ||||
| 18 | Xavi | 1 017 | Spain | 1998-2019 | 587 | 79 | 23 | 195 | 133 | ||||
| 19 | Noel Bailie | 1 013 | Northern Ireland | 1989-2011 | 577 | 87 | 291 | 36 | 22 | ||||
| 20 | Frank Lampard | 1 009 | England | 1995-2016 | 640 | 73 | 56 | 134 | 106 | ||||
| 21 | Luka Modrić | 1 000 | Croatia | 2003- | 597 | 59 | 16 | 158 | 170 |
Abbreviatures:
NL = National Leagues (only top divisions),
RL = Regional Leagues (only top divisions),
NC = National Cup,
OC = other relevant domestic club competitions, including League Cup, Super Cup, Torneio Rio-São Paulo etc.,
IP = Inter-Provincial competitions,
MI = major international club competitions, set by FIFA and continental confederations,
OI = other relevant international club competitions,
NT = National Team (only “full internationals”),
OS = other relevant selections (Inter-League games).