Fluminense’s veteran goalkeeper Fábio has been hailed as the player with the most appearances in soccer history after making the 1,391st outing of his senior career.
The setting for a last 16 tie in the CONMEBOL Sudamericana—South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Europa League—between Fluminense and Colombian outfit América de Cali was given an extra layer of glitz and glamor by Fábio’s unprecedented feat.
In the same Maracaña stadium which saw Pelé score the 1,000th goal of his career—which may have actually been his 1,001st—Fábio made his own piece of history at the opposite end of the pitch. The 44-year-old surpassed the 1,390 games which former England international Peter Shilton is credited with.
The typically outspoken two-time European Cup winner actually claims that he ‘only’ played 1,387 competitive games. Nevertheless, that tally is still enough to put him second in the all-time list of appearance makers. Cristiano Ronaldo sits back in third with 1,284 outings to his name, just a handful more than 100 behind Fábio.
