Japanese veteran Kazuyoshi Miura passed yet another milestone over the weekend when he became the oldest player to feature in a professional, FIFA-recognised match.
The week after his birthday, ‘King Kazu’ took to the pitch aged 50 years and 7 days on Sunday, playing 54 minutes of Yokohama FC’s J2 League tie against V-Varen Nagasaki and edging past the record held by Sir Stanley Matthews since 1965.
Indeed, Matthews was 50 years and 5 days when he played for Stoke against Fulham, the final competitive game of his long and distinguished career.
Speaking to FIFA.com, King Kazu was typically humble about the whole thing:
I don’t actually feel like I’ve gone past a legend. I may have surpassed him in longevity but I won’t ever be able to match his statistics and the career he had.
It’s not so much about numbers anyway, it’s more about how you play.
Now into his 32nd season as a professional football, Miura has been plugging away since 1986 and still isn’t showing any signs of packing it in just yet.
No wonder Yokohama went all out with his birthday cake…