Credit: Twitter
Kazuyoshi Miura or 'King Kazu,' as his fans lovingly call him, debuted for Oliveirense in the Portuguese second tier at the age of 56. The former Japan international joined Oliveirense on loan from FC Yokohama in January and had not featured until now. Miura is the oldest active professional footballer in the world currently, and showing no signs of slowing down.
Miura's career started in 1986 at Santos in Brazil at the age of 18 and since then he has played for various top-tier clubs across the worldlike Genoa in Italy, Corinthians, and Vissel Kobe. He played 89 times for Japan, winning the Asian Cup in 1992, and is the country’s second-highest all-time scorer with 55 goals. The striker won the league with Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and has been the J League top scorer three times. His best time came at Tokyo Verdy in Japan’s second tier where he scored 110 goals in 187 matches.
Kazu Miura came on in the 90th minute against Académico Viseu in a 4-1 victory and this made him the oldest footballer to play in the Portuguese football league at 56 years, one month, and 24 days.
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Gigi Buffon is another one of those freaks as he is playing for Parma in the Italian second division at the age of 45. The goalkeeper returned to his boyhood club after a stellar career at Juventus, Paris Saint Germain, and a World Cup win with Italy in 2006. Joaquin Sanchez played for Real Betis for the majority of his career and recently retired at the age of 41. Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to Italy and won Serie A at the age of 41 becoming the oldest goalscorer in Serie A in the process.
