MOST GAMES IN XXI CENTURY
Players with Most Games in XXI Century
We update a ranking for most experienced players in the current century, as it stood after the year 2025. Cristiano Ronaldo (picture) leads it with 1301 games.
9 players have reached the mark of 1000 games; Sergio Ramos and Luis Suárez did it in 2025 (also Roque Santa Cruz reached 1000 career games last year but only 896 of them were in XXI century).
36 players have done 900+ appearances. 22 of them are currently active (highlighted in bold); Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitić and Pepe Reina retired in 2025.
| MOST GAMES | XXI | CENTURY | ||||||||
| Player | XXI | XX | Total | Country | Career | DL | DC | ICC | NT | |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 1301 | 1301 | Portugal | 2002- | 739 | 107 | 229 | 226 | |
| 2 | Fábio | 1288 | 4 | 1292 | Brazil | 1998- | 1022 | 123 | 143 | |
| 3 | Luka Modrić | 1143 | 1143 | Croatia | 2003- | 674 | 87 | 188 | 194 | |
| 4 | Lionel Messi | 1137 | 1137 | Argentina | 2004- | 640 | 118 | 183 | 196 | |
| 5 | João Moutinho | 1084 | 1084 | Portugal | 2004- | 643 | 127 | 168 | 146 | |
| 6 | Dani Alves | 1056 | 1056 | Brazil | 2001-2023 | 626 | 132 | 172 | 126 | |
| 7 | Edin Džeko | 1047 | 1047 | Bosnia and H | 2003- | 669 | 72 | 160 | 146 | |
| 8 | Sergio Ramos | 1030 | 1030 | Spain | 2004- | 608 | 77 | 165 | 180 | |
| 9 | Luis Suárez | 1030 | 1030 | Uruguay | 2005- | 667 | 76 | 144 | 143 | |
| 10 | Sergio Busquets | 981 | 981 | Spain | 2008-2025 | 563 | 99 | 176 | 143 | |
| 11 | Alexis Sánchez | 976 | 976 | Chile | 2005- | 601 | 83 | 124 | 168 | |
| 12 | Robert Lewandowski | 975 | 975 | Poland | 2006- | 558 | 87 | 167 | 163 | |
| 13 | Iker Casillas | 974 | 74 | 1048 | Spain | 1999-2019 | 585 | 57 | 171 | 161 |
| 14 | Ángel Di María | 974 | 974 | Argentina | 2005- | 554 | 114 | 161 | 145 | |
| 15 | Karim Benzema | 974 | 974 | France | 2004- | 609 | 89 | 179 | 97 | |
| 16 | Ivan Rakitić | 971 | 971 | Croatia | 2005-2025 | 612 | 99 | 154 | 106 | |
| 17 | Andrés Iniesta | 962 | 962 | Spain | 2002-2024 | 576 | 103 | 152 | 131 | |
| 18 | Hugo Lloris | 962 | 962 | France | 2005- | 651 | 40 | 126 | 145 | |
| 19 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | 953 | 9 | 962 | Sweden | 1999-2023 | 607 | 72 | 152 | 122 |
| 20 | Thiago Silva | 949 | 949 | Brazil | 2004- | 601 | 99 | 136 | 113 | |
| 21 | James Milner | 948 | 948 | England | 2002- | 648 | 103 | 136 | 61 | |
| 22 | Jesús Navas | 945 | 945 | Spain | 2003-2024 | 639 | 103 | 147 | 56 | |
| 23 | Yasuhito Endō | 944 | 84 | 1028 | Japan | 1998-2023 | 606 | 120 | 66 | 152 |
| 24 | Pepe Reina | 943 | 6 | 949 | Spain | 2000-2025 | 661 | 53 | 193 | 36 |
| 25 | Fernandinho | 941 | 941 | Brazil | 2003-2024 | 632 | 82 | 174 | 53 | |
| 26 | Xavi | 937 | 80 | 1017 | Spain | 1998-2019 | 536 | 95 | 174 | 132 |
| 27 | Dušan Tadić | 932 | 932 | Serbia | 2006- | 626 | 73 | 122 | 111 | |
| 28 | Arturo Vidal | 931 | 931 | Chile | 2005- | 546 | 80 | 158 | 147 | |
| 29 | Igor Akinfeev | 924 | 924 | Russia | 2003- | 610 | 70 | 133 | 111 | |
| 30 | Óscar Cardozo | 924 | 924 | Paraguay | 2004- | 636 | 71 | 159 | 58 | |
| 31 | Guillermo Ochoa | 919 | 919 | Mexico | 2004- | 689 | 15 | 63 | 152 | |
| 32 | Manuel Neuer | 908 | 908 | Germany | 2006- | 535 | 75 | 174 | 124 | |
| 33 | Diego Souza | 907 | 907 | Brazil | 2003-2023 | 708 | 100 | 92 | 7 | |
| 34 | Rogério Ceni | 905 | 320 | 1225 | Brazil | 1993-2015 | 675 | 72 | 149 | 9 |
| 35 | Thomas Müller | 900 | 900 | Germany | 2007- | 515 | 80 | 174 | 131 | |
| 36 | Paulo Da Silva | 900 | 85 | 985 | Paraguay | 1996-2023 | 642 | 34 | 78 | 146 |
All games at top senior level are counted:
Domestic leagues (DL) - top national and regional divisions,
Domestic cups and other relevant competitions (DC),
Official international club competitions (ICC),
Official games between national team (NT).
Period: from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2025.