MOST GAMES IN XXI CENTURY - CRISTIANO RONALDO

• Jan 9, 2024
• History Statistics

Players with Most Games in XXI Century: updated ranking after 2023

We update the ranking of most experienced players in the current century, as it stands after the beginning of 2024.
Cristiano Ronaldo became in 2023 the first player of XXI century to hold 1200 top level games; he leads the ranking with 1204 games now.
Four players have reached 1000 games.
21 players in total have played 900+ games; 17 of them active (highlighted in bold).
We have also included in the table further 11 players who are below 900 games in XXI but have amassed this mark adding the games played in XX century, with the condition that significant majority of their games (not less than 65 percent) were still held in XXI. Such players can be conditionally taken as “players of XXI century”.
Along with the main ranking (Total XXI) 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 (1225 games) while the 2nd placed Cristiano Ronaldo should surpass him pretty soon.

	MOST  GAMES  IN	XXI CENTURY
	Player	Country	DL	DC	ICC	NT	Total	Total	Total
							XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	685	98	216	205	1204		1204
2	Fábio	Brazil	930	109	117		1156	46	1202
3	Dani Alves	Brazil	626	132	172	126	1056		1056
4	Lionel Messi	Argentina	584	104	179	180	1047		1047
5	Luka Modrić	Croatia	603	75	160	172	1010		1010
6	João Moutinho	Portugal	591	114	146	146	997		997
7	Iker Casillas	Spain	585	57	171	161	974	74	1048
8	Sergio Ramos	Spain	562	74	158	180	974		974
9	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	607	72	152	122	953	9	962
10	Andrés Iniesta	Spain	564	102	152	131	949		949
11	Yasuhito Endō	Japan	606	120	66	152	944	84	1028
12	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and H	603	71	133	133	940		940
13	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	605	76	119	138	938		938
14	Xavi	Spain	536	95	174	132	937	80	1017
15	James Milner	England	631	101	136	61	929		929
16	Pepe Reina	Spain	647	51	192	36	926	6	932
17	Ivan Rakitić	Croatia	567	96	151	106	920		920
18	Alexis Sánchez	Chile	560	78	122	160	920		920
19	Karim Benzema	France	566	80	174	97	917		917
20	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	675	72	149	9	905	308	1213
21	Jesús Navas	Spain	607	100	147	50	904		904
	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	528	37	133	160	858	212	1070
	Javier Zanetti	Argentina	449	50	128	90	717	350	1067
	Raúl	Spain	454	57	115	62	688	346	1034
	Frank Lampard	England	507	105	124	105	841	168	1009
	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
	Roque Santa Cruz	Paraguay	572	50	96	95	813	119	932
	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

All games at top senior level are counted:
Domestic leagues (DL) - top national and regional divisions, 
Domestic cups (DC), 
Official international club competitions (ICC), 
Official games between national team (NT).

Period:
from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2023 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to 31 December 2023 (for the ranking Total Career).