There are few footballers who make it to 40 these days, and even then, they’re usually goalkeepers.

Then there’s Kazuyoshi Miura, the world’s oldest professional footballer, who is still ticking along at the ripe old age of 52.

Apologies to all 52-year-olds out there, but in the sporting world, you’re basically a dinosaur.

In Japan, Miura is a cultural icon and a national treasure. Each year that he plays on, his club, Yokohama FC, presents him with a cake, and the country tunes in.

For his 52nd birthday last month, he attended a tea party hosted by Japan’s imperial couple, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, at the Imperial Palace.

Want to feel even older? He signed his first professional contract way back when in 1986:

The moment he scored that goal, and became the oldest player ever to hit the back of the net, is worth a watch:

He clearly still has the moves.

Here’s more from Bleacher Report:

“My passion for soccer has not changed since I turned pro at the age of 18,” he told reporters who attended the ceremony at Yokohama’s training centre in late February. “I even feel like it is growing.”

…Having made his professional debut for Brazilian side Santos in 1986, he has both pre-dated and outlasted such modern greats as Ryan Giggs, Francesco Totti and Javier Zanetti. In terms of football contemporaries, his career is a bridge from Michel Platini, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Kenny Dalglish to Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho and Vinicius Junior.

Sadly, there’s little chance of seeing him on the same pitch as those young stars above, at least in a professional match, because he doesn’t actually get that much game time.

This season, in particular, he’s been a benchwarmer:

All nine of his league appearances in the 2018 campaign came from the bench—for a combined total of 59 minutes—and he has yet to feature in 2019. He has not scored a goal for two years, and when he does play, the years inevitably show.

“It’s not a low level of football in J2, but you can tell he’s off the pace,” says [Sean Carroll, a Tokyo-based football writer]. “If he’s just playing simple passes and he’s not under too much pressure, you can see he’s still got it. But in terms of keeping up with the speed and the physicality of the game, he’s not where he really needs to be.”

Buzzkill.

That’s Kazuyoshi above with his Guinness world record, by the way.

He may not appear all that often this season, but he did score this strike at the age of 49, on the way to turning a 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 win for Yokohama:

Football scribes were impressed, and his impact can be felt throughout the club:

“His goal in that match was really inspirational,” says Japanese football journalist Masayuki Tanabe. “Sometimes even just his presence can be inspirational for the whole team.”

…”He obviously brings things to Yokohama money-wise, by putting bums on seats, and having him attached to the club works out very well commercially,” says Carroll. “The aura around him and the reputation that he’s got must also have an impact when it comes to attracting new players.”

At the end of each season, the country’s football journalists write the pieces announcing his retirement, and each year, he lets them down again.

Put simply, he just loves the game:

“I’m sure he has already earned plenty of money, and he has tons of fame,” says [journalist Masayuki] Tanabe. “It might sound naive, but I think he simply loves football. Otherwise there’s no other reason to keep on playing.”

I hope for his sake that he bangs in one more off the bench, just to silence any critics, before he hangs up his boots.

By the way, if you’re thinking you’re too old to run a marathon, you might want to familiarise yourself with the name John Starbrook.

He’s the chap who, at 87, became the oldest runner to complete the 2018 London Marathon.

You can read more about the merits of remaining active into your later years in this excellent BBC piece.

[source:bleacherreport]