THE WORLD’S OLDEST PLAYER
Nearly 54 and still going strong: meet the man who started out when Pele was playing and had Maradona in stitches
“I want to play on until my sixties,” Robert Carmona tells FFT. He’s already officially recognised as the oldest player in the world, but the 53-year-old Uruguayan has no plans to retire yet.
Carmona isn’t even a goalkeeper, the position most suited to longevity. Instead he defines himself as the typical left-footed No.10, and holds not one but two Guinness world records – the other for the longest gap between spells at the same club. He returned to regional side Pan de Azucar last year, 40 years after leaving them first time around.
“I played there in 1975, when the world was very different,” says Carmona, who turns 54 in April. “Representing them again 40 years later felt very special.”
After starting out in the lower divisions in Uruguay, he moved to the USA to play in semi-pro tournaments. “I never had to work – my only profession has been football,” he explains. “I had some pauses, some injuries, but I’ve always been active. One day, my daughter Agostina grabbed the Guinness Book of Records in a bookshop and she was really surprised I didn’t appear there. I started investigating and I discovered that the oldest was Marco Ballotta, at 45, so I knew that record was mine.”
And indeed it was. Guinness sent their representatives over to Uruguay and awarded him an official certificate.
Carmona also has unwritten records of adventure. A few years ago, while scouting for Argentine side Tristan Suarez, he found himself kicking a ball around with Diego Maradona.
“Everybody wanted to play on the same team as him, but I chose to play against him,” Carmona laughs. “Why did I do that? Simple. I knew I had to put in a magic performance so I could amaze him. And I did, but unfortunately for the wrong reasons. I tried to do a rabona but I fell over. Maradona was laughing, saying: ‘Uruguayan, get up, rabona, get up.’ To this day he stills call me rabona!”
Carmona visits schools, universities and prisons to pass on tips about professional life and motivational skills, and he helps his team-mates, too.
“I can give them advice about career management, diet, off-pitch behaviour and professionalism. I had to give away lots of things in order to remain fit and in form.
“Now it feels totally normal for me to walk into a dressing room on a matchday and find team-mates that could be my grandsons. My last manager was 34 and one of the players on the team, , a 16-year-old, was the grandson of a guy I played with in the 1980s.
“But despite the vast age difference, I don’t feel like I will be tested. I’m usually given the captain’s armband, and the other players always treat me with respect.”
So the next time you consider calling a 34-year-old player a ‘veteran’, think again.