Luka modric will put your count of years at 36 in one month. On September 9, the Croat reaches that border. He will do it as a player of the Real Madrid, in what will be his tenth season at the club. They contemplate 391 games, 28 goals and 16 titles. And, beyond numbers, a football chair taught for a decade as a Madridista.
Modric starts the 2021-22 season with undisputed starter stripes. Those that have been won. Odegaard and CeballosIf they stay, they will have to row a lot to get the Croatian out of the eleven. The truth is that this option is barely listed. With those 36 years, Luka he looks at the season with the hunger to win again, the same one he has to be with his team in the Qatar World Cup. It is an age that makes you travel back in time to find the oldest madridistas on the pitch. In that route it appears in the year 2011. Then, in a symbolic way, the figure of Jerzy dudek. The Polish goalkeeper played only two games that season, the last on May 21: 8-1 at Almería. He was 38 years and 59 days old.
You have to go further to find the next super veteran. This was indeed a field player. With 36 years and 25 days, on June 17, 2001, Manolo Sanchís closed his eternal stage in Madrid. With a double from Raúl, Madrid won over Valladolid (2-1) in match number 710 for white. But his role had nothing to do with Modric’s because that was his ninth game of the season.
To find an outfield player who is 36 or older and who has real weight in the team, you have to go until the 1975-76 season. That was the last of Amancio’s 14 as a Madridista. His farewell in an official match was 36 years and 213 days old, on May 16, 1976 against Atlético de Madrid. He played the first 45 minutes. In his final season he appeared in 28 games, all of them as a starter. For example, he played every minute of the European Cup semi-final against Bayern. Well, all but the finals because he was expelled after 90.
Puskas is the oldest player to appear with Madrid in an official match. He arrived at the club with 31 and said goodbye on May 8, 1966, against Betis in the Cup, three days before the final of the Sixth. He was 39 years and 36 days old.
With his 391 matches, Modric is already just five behind Di Stéfano. And he is the third foreigner with the most defenses of the white jersey. Ahead he has two teammates from this squad: Benzema (559) and Marcelo (528).
