Advertisement
Faryd Mondragon celebrates after Colombia's James Rodriguez scored his side's fourth goal. Kirsty Wigglesworth
v for veteran

Veteran of USA '94, Colombia goalkeeper becomes World Cup's oldest player

… unless Roger Milla has anything he’d like to tell us.

FARYD MONDRAGON MADE his first appearance at the World Cup at USA ’94. Last night the veteran goalkeeper came off the bench in Colombia’s 4-1 win over Japan to become the tournament’s oldest ever player.

Mondragon, who turned 43 last Saturday, replaced first-choice goalkeeper David Ospina for the final eight minutes of a game Colombia had already sewn up.

If there were any doubts that his appearance was tokenism, Mondragon produced a smart save from Yoichiro Kakitani in injury time.
https://vine.co/v/MtnbmhubvhJ

He surpassed the previous record of Cameroon’s Roger Milla, who played at 42 years and 39 days at USA ’94.

Over on RTÉ, following the game, pundits Kenny Cunningham and Didi Hamann criticised Colombia boss Jose Pekerman for putting Mondragon on for the closing stages, remarking that it showed a lack of respect for the Japanese. Fellow pundit Richie Sadlier argued that Colombia had every right to award the veteran his cameo outing. He later tweeted:

Colombia have a new saviour as 22-year-old James Rodriguez inspires crushing win

‘Chiellini bumped into me with his shoulder’, says Suarez as he complains of eye injury

Your Voice
Readers Comments
4
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.