A 70-year-old goalkeeper is about to become the oldest footballer ever to feature in an official match in Spain after remarkably being selected by a fifth-tier club.
Angel Mateos Gonzalez, a former miner turned goalkeeper, is proving that age is just a number after making CD Colunga’s matchday squad against Praviano on Sunday.
Gonzalez has been offering guidance and support behind the scenes at the Spanish club this season, aiding the development of their goalkeepers, and has now been rewarded with an opportunity to break records in the sport.
But Colunga has urged that the septuagenarian’s presence in their matchday squad is not viewed as strange or peculiar.
‘This is neither a record nor an oddity. It is a tribute,’ Colunga said in an Instagram post on Wednesday, announcing the news with an AI-edited image of Gonzalez.
‘We are talking about a man who has been a miner, who has dedicated his life to work and football. This isn’t about numbers, it’s about values. If anyone focuses solely on his age, they are missing the point.
CD Colunga’s AI image of Angel Mateos Gonzalez, a 70-year-old goalkeeper who is set to play on Sunday and become the oldest player to feature in an official match in Spanish history
‘Mateos isn’t playing because he’s 70 years old. He’s playing because he’s earned it.’
Gonzalez told local newspaper El Comercio he did not know if he would play the full game.
‘I’m going to train with them this week and I still don’t know if I’ll play 90 minutes, the first half, or what,’ he said. ‘I still feel agile… when I started, it was almost a different sport. The balls, the pitches.
‘I remember I used to keep a cauldron next to the goal so that, without the referee seeing me, I could scoop out water when the pitches got muddy, which back then was almost a daily occurrence.’
Despite the remarkable opportunity for Gonzalez, he won’t quite become the oldest footballer of all time worldwide.
That honour currently belongs to goalkeeper Isaak Hayik, who at 73 years of age starred for Israeli professional outfit Ironi Or Yehuda in 2019.
Many have argued Japanese icon Kazuyoshi Miura – still playing at 59 – is in fact the oldest footballer of all time, though Hayik’s appearance was watched and accredited by the Guinness World Records and thus is officially down in the history books.
Aside from Gonzalez making history in Spain, little is resting on Sunday’s match for Colunga, who sit 10th in the division and cannot earn promotion or suffer relegation with just two games to play.
