The FIFA World Cup, commonly known as the World Cup, is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions are France, who won their second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The present format of the tournament involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the World Cup Finals. 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title of World Cup Champions.
The Oldest Players To Play In The FIFA World Cup
5. Peter Shilton (40 Years, 292 Days)
Peter Shilton made up for lost time despite not appearing in a World Cup finals until he was 32 years old. Shilton made 125 appearances for his country before retiring from international football following the 1990 third-place play-off, which resulted in a loss for England and left him as the Three Lions' all-time appearance leader. Shilton's career didn't end in 1990, though. He continued to play league football up until the 1996–1997 season for Leyton Orient, a team that was then in the third level, when he amassed 1,000 English Football League games at the age of 47 before ultimately retiring at the conclusion of the season. Shilton unfortunately never played in the Premier League, but he did sit on the bench for West Ham United and Coventry City.
4. Pat Jennings (41 Years)
What a way to mark your 41st birthday by participating in your final World Cup finals game and breaking the record for the oldest player to do so. The only problem for Pat Jennings is that he faced a Brazil team who was in their own celebratory mood, beating the birthday boy in Mexico by three. Strangely, even though John Lukic had replaced Jennings as Arsenal's starting quarterback following the 1984–1985 season, Jennings continued to play for his old team Tottenham Hotspur's reserve squad to keep his match-day skills strong. Jennings played in almost 1,000 top-level matches over the course of a distinguished career that saw him hailed as one of the best goalkeepers of all time, including 119 for Northern Ireland (second most in the nation's history behind Steven Davis). Famously, Jennings also scored when playing for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1967 Charity Shield when he sent a long shot from the edge of his own box over Alex Stepney, the goalie for Manchester United.
3. Roger Milla (42 Years, 39 Days)
Here, you get two recordings for the price of one. In addition to becoming the oldest player in World Cup history at the time, Roger Milla also broke the record for the oldest goalscorer at the time when he scored the consolation goal in the 6-1 loss to Russia (you may recall that this was the same game in which Oleg Salenko set the record for the most goals scored by a single player with five). The goal would turn out to be the last in Milla's illustrious international playing career, which had seemed to come to an end six years earlier at the relatively young age of 36. After making his debut in 1973, Milla would go on to play 77 times for Cameroon, scoring 43 goals. In 1982, he made his World Cup debut, starting all three of their games during the group stage. After the 1994 World Cup, Milla played in Indonesia for two more seasons before deciding to end his career.
2. Faryd Mondragon (43 Years, 3 Days)
When Colombia defeated Japan in their final group stage match, ensuring Colombia's victory and knockout stage qualification, head coach José Pékerman gave goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón one last moment in the spotlight when, with five minutes remaining, the player became the oldest player in a World Cup game at the time. The Colombian shotshopper still holds one important record, which is fortunate for him. Mondragón's wait of 15 years and 363 days remains the longest a player has experienced between two World Cup appearances. He was a member of Colombia's team for the 1998 World Cup in France, when he started all three of their group stage games. This would be Mondragón's grand finale bow. After being eliminated by Brazil in the quarterfinals, he announced his retirement from all forms of football. He had played against Venezuela in 1993 for the first time since being selected for the Brazilian Olympic team the year before.
1. Essam El-Hadary (45 Years, 161 Days)
Egypt didn't have much to be happy about going into the championship game against Saudi Arabia after losing their first two games at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which marked their rather dismal return to the finals for the first time in 28 years. That is, until the team rosters were submitted and Essam El-Hadary, the goalkeeper, took his place between the goalposts. El-Hadary became the oldest player to ever compete in a World Cup and the oldest player to ever make their World Cup debut. El-Hadary also had a busy day at work because he was called upon to save a penalty in the first half, making him the first African to do so at a World Cup championships. However, he wasn't as fortunate with a second penalty on the cusp of halftime, and Egypt ultimately lost 2-1 in Volgograd.
El-Hadary earned 159 appearances for his country, winning the AFCON championship four times while being named the best goalkeeper of the tournament three times. El-Hadary made his international debut in 1996, ten months before the youngest member of the Egyptian national team's 2018 World Cup squad was born.
