Shilton v Fabio: Who really holds the world record for senior appearances?
Brazilian goalkeeper Fabio Deivson Lopes Maciel, who is representing Fluminense at the Club World Cup, began his career in 1997. Since then he has played 1,375 official, senior games of football.
It is a remarkable number and testament to his talent, drive and longevity.
English former goalkeeper Peter Shilton, whose career lasted from 1966 to 1997, is the only other man to have played more than 1,350 official games of senior, top-level football.
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Shilton's total — which has been the world record for decades — is, according to him, 1,387 matches. Guinness World Records — the authoritative reference book and website that lists and collates records in a variety of different fields — say he played 1,390.
So what is Shilton's real number? And how far behind is Fabio?
Or has the Brazilian already surpassed Shilton?
Here, The Athletic explains the situation, defines an official, senior game and lays out the facts concerning both men's totals.
Firstly, which matches are classed as official and what level of competition do they have to be in to reach this threshold?
In club football it is largely obvious — pre-season friendlies are not official matches but, once they are over, every game within a recognised competition (so excluding winter-break friendlies) played by a club's first team is classed as official and added to the record books.
For the purposes of working out who has played the most official games in the sport's history, matches played for amateur clubs or for clubs outside a country's national league system (e.g. in regional leagues) are not counted as they are not classed as top-level fixtures.
When it comes to international football, any match played by a country's senior first team is classed as official unless explicitly stated otherwise by FIFA — but age-group appearances (e.g. for England's under-17s) are not. This is why matches at the Olympics, where squads are made up of players who were under the age of 23 at the start of the calendar year with three exceptions permitted, are not included in players' career stats (even Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't count his goal at the 2004 Olympics for Portugal in his overall total).
So, let's start with Shilton. How many official games did he actually play in a career that saw him appear for Leicester City, Stoke City, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Derby County, Plymouth Argyle, Bolton Wanderers, Leyton Orient and the England national team?
According to the English National Football Archive, an online database listing every official game played in the country's history, Shilton, now 75, played 348 games for Leicester, 121 for Stoke, 272 for Nottingham Forest, 242 for Southampton, 211 for Derby, 43 for Plymouth, two for Bolton and 10 for Leyton Orient. Shilton was also on the books at Wimbledon, Coventry City and West Ham United towards the end of his time as a professional, but never appeared in a competitive game for those three clubs.
This means he played 1,249 games in his almost 31-year club career. Add in the record 125 England appearances he made from 1970 to 1990 and that takes him to 1,374 matches.
So why does Shilton himself, in the biography section of his X account, state the total as 1,387? And why do Guinness World Records, on their website, have it as 1,390?
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The 1,387 figure likely includes 13 games that Shilton played for England's under-23s team from 1968 to 1972, with four of those matches coming after his debut for the England senior team.
England under-23s played from 1954 to 1976, before becoming the under-21s side that still exists today.
So while established players featured in these games it is a stretch to class them as senior matches and therefore it seems reasonable not to include them in players' career stats — just as other international age-group matches aren't due to the fact they are not appearances for the senior team.
As for Guinness World Records, their figure of 1,390 likely includes 16 games in unofficial or regional cup competitions, such as the Nottinghamshire FA County Cup and Derbyshire FA Centenary Cup that are not classed by the English National Football Archive as official matches. Guinness World Records did not provide a breakdown when contacted by The Athletic.
This, therefore, leaves the former goalkeeper on 1,374 official, senior games of football.
Now, to Fabio and that figure of 1,375 that he has to his name.
The 44-year old has never played for a club outside Brazil and has not represented the national team. His 28-year career (and counting) has seen him appear in official, senior games for Uniao Bandeirante, Vasco da Gama, Cruzeiro and Fluminense.
According to Globo, Brazil's biggest daily newspaper who have gone back through Fabio's career in detail, including contacting clubs for information, the goalkeeper played 30 games for Uniao Bandeirante, 150 for Vasco da Gama, 976 for Cruzeiro and is currently on 219 games for Fluminense.
Fabio did also play for Athletico Paranaense in the late 1990s, but all of his appearances for the club, according to Athletico Paranaense, came in youth games.
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Adding up the official games he has played for the senior first team at each club puts him on 1,375 matches, one ahead of Shilton.
However, as The Athletic's Jack Lang has pointed out, Fluminense are accepting Shilton's figure of 1,387 so will mark the milestone when Fabio, all being well, eclipses that number later this year. This is why there was no fanfare when Fabio played against Borussia Dortmund at the Club World Cup in New Jersey on Tuesday.
Yet it does appear after carefully assessing the figures available that the Fluminense goalkeeper has now played the most senior games in the history of football.
Shilton posted on social media in 2023 about the prospect of his record being broken and while the Englishman is fiercely proud of his landmark, it appears there is nothing but respect between the two goalkeepers.
I'll be the first to congratulate Fabio Deivson Lopes Maciel @FluminenseFC this great goalkeeper is only 52 games short of breaking my world record for the most official appearances as a professional footballer…. He's getting close ! ⚽️@FIFAcom
— Peter Shilton (@Peter_Shilton) December 23, 2023
How long Fabio goes on playing is anyone's guess, but as Fluminense's clear first-choice No 1 he will presumably be confident of hitting the 1,400-mark.
There is one important footnote, however. Portuguese superstar Ronaldo, who is 40 and still playing for club and country, has appeared in 1,281 official, senior games in his career — a figure bettered by only Fabio and Shilton.
The Al Nassr forward is likely to be able to play in Saudi Arabia for as long as he wants and, perhaps more pertinently, is 62 short of 1,000 career goals — a milestone he is desperate to achieve. Only time will tell if he ends up surpassing the goalkeepers ahead of him.
What is all-but certain though, is that it will be Fabio, not Shilton, whose record Ronaldo will try and chase down.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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