Fluminense goalkeeper F\u00e1bio has etched his name into football history after setting a new world record for the most competitive appearances in men\u2019s football. The 44-year-old reached the milestone of 1,391 matches on Tuesday when he featured in Fluminense\u2019s 2-0 victory over Colombia\u2019s Am\u00e9rica de Cali in the Copa Sudamericana round of 16 at the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
F\u00e1bio surpassed the long-standing record held by former England international Peter Shilton, who retired in 1997 with an official tally of 1,387 appearances\u2014though Guinness World Records lists his total as 1,390. On Saturday, the Brazilian veteran had equalled Shilton\u2019s mark before going one better in front of his home supporters, who celebrated the feat with chants of \u201cF\u00e1bio is the best goalkeeper in Brazil.\u201d He was also presented with a commemorative plaque to honor the historic achievement.
Speaking after keeping a clean sheet in the match, F\u00e1bio admitted the moment was special. \u201cSometimes we don\u2019t realize the importance of such a significant achievement as breaking this record, which has stood for many years,\u201d he said. Fluminense head coach Renato Ga\u00facho also hailed his goalkeeper\u2019s professionalism and longevity, stating, \u201cNo one plays so many matches without a level of professionalism like his. It will be difficult for another player to surpass this record.\u201d
Over the course of his 27-year career, F\u00e1bio has represented just four Brazilian clubs. He made 30 appearances for Uni\u00e3o Bandeirante at the start of his career, before playing 150 times for Vasco da Gama. His longest spell came at Cruzeiro, where he featured in 976 matches between 2005 and 2022. Since joining Fluminense, he has already made 235 appearances, including the club\u2019s 2023 Copa Libertadores triumph and their semi-final run at the FIFA Club World Cup earlier this year.
While neither FIFA nor South American football\u2019s governing body CONMEBOL has formally ratified the record, Brazilian media and Fluminense insist that F\u00e1bio now stands alone as the most enduring player in the sport\u2019s history. Beginning his professional journey in 1997\u2014the very year Shilton retired\u2014the Brazilian shot-stopper has come full circle, redefining the boundaries of longevity in football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fluminense goalkeeper F\u00e1bio has etched his name into football history after setting a new world record for the most competitive appearances in men\u2019s football. The 44-year-old reached the milestone of 1,391 matches on Tuesday when he featured in Fluminense\u2019s 2-0 victory over Colombia\u2019s Am\u00e9rica de Cali in the Copa Sudamericana round of 16 at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/images-49-1.jpeg?fit=479%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16731,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16730\/revisions\/16731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}