KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL

Better nutrition. Improved training methods. Fewer cigarettes. Put it all together and soccer's elder statesmen aren't just prolonging their careers-they're continuing to dominate

- by THORE HAUGSTAD

So far so good.

“... at 41.”

You what?

Almost no soccer players stay at the top past 40, unless you’re a goalkeeper, or Paolo Maldini, or your water bottle has been sourced from the actual Fountain of Youth. Strikers like Ronaldo tend to hit the wall by 35. Their legs sour. Their hearts beat slower. Each training session feels a little more painful than the last.

Yet at this World Cup, Ronaldo will be there. Portugal captain and lead striker... at 41. Last year Ronaldo did a test claiming his biological age was just below 29. You’d laugh, had you not suspected it was true.

While Ronaldo is an ascetic freak locked into a Rocky Balboa montage on repeat, he’s not entirely alone. Since the first edition in 1930, only one male outfield player over 40 has appeared in a World Cup game: Roger Milla in 1994. Now, the Cameroon striker might be followed not just by Ronaldo, but also Croatia playmaker Luka Modrić (40) and Bosnia forward Edin Džeko (40).

We’re not talking about the reserve left back for Curaçao here, all due respect. The oldest names at this World Cup are also some of the biggest.

Two decades ago these guys might have been sipping Negronis on a beach in the Caribbean right now, 20 pounds heavier, grappling with the post-career existential crisis. But many soccer stars are playing for longer. Two years ago, the Portuguese defender Pepe became the oldest player at the Euros, at 41. In the qualifiers for that tournament, the record for oldest player was broken three times. A University of Vigo study found that, from 1992 to 2018, the average player age in the Champions League rose by 1.6 years.

Lionel Messi turns 39 in June. Over in Spain, Robert Lewandowski, who missed out on his third World Cup when Poland lost in a playoff to Sweden, has been scoring for Barcelona at 37.