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Fluminense-Chelsea: Who is Fábio, the 44-year-old Brazilian goalkeeper, soon to be the most capped player in history?

Fluminense-Chelsea: Who is Fábio, the 44-year-old Brazilian goalkeeper, soon to be the most capped player in history?

Twenty-eight years after his first match in a FIFA-organized competition, he's still running. Or rather, he's still putting on the gloves. At 44, Fábio Deivson Lopes Maciel, known as Fábio, continues to tirelessly push back the retirement age, comfortable in a Rio defense that, between him and Thiago Silva (40) , has lost count of the years.

And he has lost none of his brilliance: decisive against Inter (2-0) , decisive against Al-Hilal (2-1) , the oldest player in the Club World Cup was one of the great architects of Fluminense's run in this competition, which faces Chelsea this Tuesday in the semi-final (9 p.m.) .

The player, who will celebrate his 45th birthday on September 30th, began his professional career… last century, in 1997, 28 years ago. It was in that year that he won the Under-17 World Cup with Brazil, alongside a certain Ronaldinho.

Although he represented the Seleção up to the U23 level, he never got a chance with the top teams. Called up several times in 2003, 2004 (he was part of the squad that won the Copa America that year), 2006 and 2011, he never played a single minute in the senior team, not even in a friendly.

A scar for someone who feels he didn't get the place or the number of call-ups he deserved: "I don't denigrate those who were chosen, but the coaches took a lot of players out of friendship and not out of merit," he quipped on Brazilian television in 2020.

An injustice that did not deprive him, far from it, of a rich career or a place in football history. While he never left the confines of his native Brazil—he played successively for União Bandeirante (1997), Atlético Paranaense (1998-00, no professional matches), Vasco da Gama (2000-04), Cruzeiro (2005-22), and Fluminense (since 2022)—his longevity and reliability gradually brought him to the gates of his sport's pantheon: against Chelsea, he will play his 1,380th career match. Not just a staggering number, soon a record etched in the history books.

Only the Englishman Peter Shilton , whose total varies according to versions between 1,387 (that of the main person concerned on his X account ) and 1,390 (that of the Guinness Book of Records), still surpasses him. He is, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi , the only player still active among the 10 who have played the most professional matches in the history of football.

While this record won't be broken during the Club World Cup, even if Fluminense eliminate Chelsea, Fábio has broken another one in the meantime: the number of career clean sheets . On June 25 against Mamelodi Sundowns, he kept his 507th clean sheet in his career, relegating Gianluigi Buffon to second place in this ranking.

The oldest player in Fluminense's history, the oldest player to have played in and won a Copa Libertadores final, the oldest player in the history of the Brazilian Serie A, he also became in 2023 the oldest player to play in a final... of the Club World Cup. This was, of course, under the old format: on December 22, 2023, his Fluminense was pulverized by Manchester City (4-0) , at the end of a competition in which he had already shone and made a string of saves. Basically, the years go by but look the same.

Le Parisien

Le Parisien

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