Most international careers are over well before a player reaches their late 30s, which makes the outliers all the more remarkable. A small group of footballers have appeared at World Cups long after the majority of their generation had retired, defying the physical demands of the sport at the highest level.
With the 2026 World Cup now less than two months away, the question of which veterans might do the same this summer is already being asked. Fans tracking the latest odds and markets ahead of the tournament can do so through Betdaq. Before it gets under way, here are the oldest players ever to appear at a World Cup.
Essam El Hadary – 45 years, 161 days (Egypt, 2018)
No player in World Cup history has been older than Essam El Hadary when he took to the field for Egypt against Saudi Arabia on 25 June 2018. At 45 years and 161 days, the goalkeeper also became the oldest player to make a World Cup debut, having waited until the final group game of a tournament Egypt had not reached in 28 years.
It was far from a quiet afternoon. El Hadary saved a first-half penalty to become the first African to keep out a spot-kick at the tournament, before conceding a second on the stroke of half time. Egypt lost 2-1 and went home, but El Hadary left with the record. He made 159 appearances for his country across a career that began in 1996, winning the Africa Cup of Nations four times.
Faryd Mondragon – 43 years, 3 days (Colombia, 2014)
Faryd Mondragon held the record El Hadary would later break. The Colombian goalkeeper came off the bench with five minutes remaining against Japan in 2014, with qualification already secured and his manager Jose Pekerman willing to give a veteran one last moment on the biggest stage.
Mondragon still holds a record of his own that nobody has matched. His appearances at the 1998 and 2014 tournaments were separated by 15 years and 363 days, the longest gap between two World Cup appearances in history. He retired after Colombia’s quarter-final exit in 2014.
Roger Milla – 42 years, 39 days (Cameroon, 1994)
Roger Milla’s involvement in the 1994 World Cup only happened because Cameroon’s president personally asked him to come out of retirement. It was the second time Milla had been persuaded back; the same thing had occurred before the 1990 tournament in Italy, where he helped Cameroon become the first African nation to reach the quarter-finals.
In 1994, Milla scored in a 6-1 defeat to Russia at the age of 42 years and 39 days, making him the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history, a record he still holds. He scored 43 goals in 77 appearances for Cameroon across a career he extended until 1996.
Pat Jennings – 41 years, 0 days (Northern Ireland, 1986)
Pat Jennings played the final game of his international career on his 41st birthday, lining up for Northern Ireland against Brazil at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The occasion did not spare him; Brazil scored three past the goalkeeper who had already retired from league football the previous season after being displaced at Arsenal.
Despite the scoreline, Jennings remains one of the finest goalkeepers ever produced by these islands. He made over 1,000 top-level appearances and earned 119 caps for Northern Ireland across a career that stretched from the early 1960s until that birthday farewell in the Mexican sun.
Peter Shilton – 40 years, 292 days (England, 1990)
Peter Shilton’s final World Cup appearance came in England’s third-place play-off at Italia 90, a 2-1 defeat to Italy in Bari. He retired from international football immediately afterwards having accumulated 125 caps, a record for England that still stands. Across three World Cups, Shilton kept 10 clean sheets, a joint record alongside France’s Fabien Barthez.
What stands out about several players on this list is that goalkeepers dominate it. Four of the five oldest World Cup players ever were shot-stoppers, which reflects both the physical demands of the position and the way that experience and reading of the game can compensate for what the years take away.