The number of footballers who maintain or have maintained the highest, world-class level after the age of 40 can be counted on the fingers of one hand. This group certainly includes Zlato Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldowho will celebrate his 40th birthday in a few months. It is hard to believe that during the European Championships in Germany, the strength of the Portuguese team was 41-year-old Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira, known as Pepewhich Roberto Martinez included in virtually every match from the first minute.
Pepe is retiring. Just look at these numbers. Absolute legend
The Portuguese defender only missed the group game against Georgia. Apart from that, he even played brilliantly in extra time. However, shortly after the end of Euro 2024, he decided that the time had come to end his career, which he announced on social media. And how! A half-hour long video appeared on YouTube, in which he summed up his football journey.
Pepe's football career began in 2001 in the youth team of Corinthians. Few people know that he was born in Brazil. He then moved to the Portuguese Marítimo, from where he left three years later for two million. euro FC Porto bought him. He returned there after spending ten wonderful years at Real Madrid. The “Royal” paid 30 million euros for him in 2007.
Pepe played 334 games for the Spanish club. matchesbecoming an absolute legend. With Real, he won three national championships and the same number of Champions League cups. Taking into account matches in all teams, the Portuguese took to the pitch 878 times! After leaving the Madrid team in 2017, he moved to Turkish Besiktas. In December 2018, he was left without a club and it seemed that he could end his career then. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Already in January 2019, he returned to the aforementioned Porto, where he also has the status of a legend. And it was as a player of this team that 41-year-old Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira announced at the beginning of August this year that he was hanging up his boots. Many fans will remember him for his criminal misdemeanors, but others will never forget his great interventions and feisty attitude on the pitch.