Topics: Japan, Kazuyoshi Miura
Japanese legend Kazuyoshi Miura has broken his own world record as the oldest footballer to play a professional game, at well over 55-years-old.
Miura might be in his mid 50s but signed for the 14th club of his career, when he moved to Japanese fourth tier side Suzuka Point Getters at the beginning of this year.
The ageless forward, who has earned 89 caps for his country, crazily featured on FIFA 96 and started his professional career 10 years before that, playing for Santos in Brazil.
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He became the world record holder for the oldest active footballer at the age of 54 years and 12 days old back in March 2021, but he's still going.
On Wednesday morning, UK time, Miura was involved in his latest game, as the Point Getters took on Criacao Shinjuku in a game that also broke the record for the attendance.
16,218 were in attendance at the newly-built National Stadium, more than have watched a Japanese league game previously, as the 55-year-old came on.
He came on in the 76th minute, 255 days after hitting his most recent birthday, to rapturous applause, to break his own record, just four months before he turns 56.
"I'm grateful to have played in the best atmosphere possible, and feel proud," Miura said following the game.
"I wanted this game to be a part of the history I'm making.
"Having got the chance to play at a place like this, I'll be staying humble and keep going without forgetting the hunger."
It's crazy to see that he's said he's going to keep going and that he's still 'hungry' to continue his career, considering it started in 1986.
He has previously said that he's hoping to play until he's 60 years old, which would be a quite ridiculous achievement for anyone to still be playing professional sport at that age.
As well as FIFA 96, the man known as King Kazu was also immortalised by eFootball PES 2021, when the game, made by Konami, announced a partnership with the forward.
There's very little about his 36 year career that isn't extraordinary at this point, after all, he's been playing professional football longer than Lionel Messi has been alive.
