Essam El Hadary becomes the oldest World Cup player in history

He was born in 1973

Egypt play their final group game today against Saudi Arabia, in what has turned out to be a dead rubber after both sides lost their previous two matches against Uruguay and Russia. Given the circumstances, Egypt manager Héctor Cúper decided to start Essam El Hadary. This makes him the oldest player to ever play in a World Cup, at the age of 45. The previous record was set by Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, when he came on for David Ospina during Colombia's 4-1 thrashing of Japan in the 2014 World Cup at the age of 43. El Hadary replaces Mohamed El-Shenawy who played the previous two group matches. Mohamed Salah, who started the game despite an alleged row with the Egyptian FA, put Egypt 1-0 up in the game after 22 minutes.