We think we know a lot about football. Do we, though? I mean really. Do we really? We know what’s happening right now, and the football world moves on so quickly that we rarely have time to reminisce. With this little time to look back, our perception of football’s past often gets skewed. So, allow me to look back through the annals of football’s history to find some facts which will make you question everything about your sense of time. Let’s begin.
Diego Maradona’s career overlapped with Gianluigi Buffon’s for longer than it did with Pele’s
It’s often thought that there was an unofficial passing of the torch between Diego Maradona and Pele sometime in the late 1970s as the Argentine was starting out his career and Pele’s was grinding to a halt. However, Maradona’s and Pele’s careers overlapped for just less than a year, as Maradona made his professional debut for Argentinos Juniors on the 20th of October 1976, and Pele played his final match, an exhibition, on the 1st of October 1977.
Meanwhile, nearly 20 years later, Maradona was still playing after a short hiatus, and a young goalkeeper named Gianluigi Buffon was coming through the ranks for Parma, making his professional debut on November 19, 1995. Maradona ended up retiring on his balcony in Buenos Aires on October 29 1997. Buffon only ended up retiring a few months ago, back in August 2023, after 6 years at Parma, 19 years at Juventus, and a 2-year return to Parma to end his career. Maradona and Pele’s careers ended up overlapping for 344 days, and Maradona and Buffon’s careers ended up overlapping for 710 days.
Lamine Yamal could end up playing with footballers who haven’t even been born yet
At the tender age of 16 years and 3 months old, Lamine Yamal is making history every single game, becoming the youngest player ever to play for Barcelona, and La Liga back in April at 15 years and 9 months old, is now the youngest player ever to start for La Liga, Barcelona, and the Spanish National team, and is the youngest player to score in all 3 as well. Yamal has the potential to be a Barcelona legend for 20+ years. Yamal will be Cristiano Ronaldo’s age in 2045, only 5 years from the half century. While it’s very, very unlikely to see someone stay in a team with the quality of FC Barcelona for 22 years, the sky is the limit for Yamal.
Considering Yamal stays with Barcelona and the caliber of La Masia stays like how it has been, Lamine Yamal could very well be playing alongside players who haven’t even been born yet. If you think seeing players born from 2014-2018 will be weird, think about seeing players born as you read this playing football. Yamal could very well be playing alongside and mentoring those players, if he plays football for that long.
Andres Iniesta played a quarter as many games at Vissel Kobe than he did at Barcelona
When Andres Iniesta left Barcelona in 2018 for Vissel Kobe, you’d be forgiven for saying that it would likely only be a 1-2 year thing then he’d either retire or move to the MLS. However, somehow, he stayed at Vissel Kobe for 5 years, and moved to Emirates Club this summer. Yes, he’s still playing. He disappeared from the map in 2018, but is still playing.
When you play for a club for 5 years, you obviously play a lot of games, and Iniesta did. He played a staggering 114 games for Vissel Kobe, which honestly isn’t a ton considering the amount of seasons, but it’s still a quarter of the amount of games he played for Barcelona in his time there.
Michael Owen is younger than Gianluigi Buffon and only 5 years older than Cristiano Ronaldo
Despite retiring 10 years ago, Michael Owen was only born in 1979, the same time as some old players in current times. Bringing up Buffon again, Owen is in fact 2 years younger than the recently retired GK. Buffon’s career lasted 11 years longer than Owen’s did, and he played over double the amount of matches that Buffon did.
As for Owen and Cristiano, Owen is only 5 years older than Cristiano Ronaldo, and Ronaldo ended up playing only about 70 fewer matches at Real Madrid alone than Owen did in his entire career, and Ronaldo has scored over twice the goals than Owen played games, as well. Truly one of the biggest wastes of talent in football history, was Michael Owen.
You could sign Totti, Drogba, Mbappe, and Haaland on the same team on FIFA – and a player born in the 1960s
The 2016-17 season was a very odd season in which the torch was passed. We saw Francesco Totti’s last season as Erling Haaland was bursting onto the scene – not at RB Salzburg yet, but Molde. This season also saw Mbappe’s breakout with AS Monaco, one of their main stars as they reached a shock UCL semifinals.
We also saw Didier Drogba in free agent limbo before signing for Phoenix Rising later in 2017, and oddly, 1969-born Barry Richardson’s 29th of 30 seasons as a professional goalkeeper, his 3rd season with Wycombe Wanderers, where he’d retire in 2018. All of these footballers were playing at the same time in 2016-17, and you could sign all 5 for the same club in FIFA 17.
Those are all the facts I have for today. I enjoyed making this one, so I may or may not make a second rendition of it soon, with new facts. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time.