Five players who proved it’s never too late at the World Cup finals | OneFootball

Ollie Whitmore, Chief football news reporter

When 40-year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha captured the world’s imagination producing seven stunning saves to keep out European champions Spain, it would’ve been safe to assume he’s been playing for a while.

But you thought wrong. His island nation’s remarkable draw with La Roja on Monday might have been a game 15 years in the making, but Vozinha was already aged 25 when his footballing career began in 2012.

He said having realised his life’s ambition at full time: “I thought about leaving the national team, but then I continued because of this dream.

“The performance is a performance for everyone. I am the man of the game, but this award is for all my colleagues, because without them, nothing is possible.

“And I will continue to work for the team and for the people.”

Owing from an isolated archipelago roughly 600km off of Africa’s west coast with very limited opportunity to break into professional football, the goalkeeper produced a performance that could stand as the 2026 World Cup’s best.

Inspired by his incredible story of determination to reach his first World Cup and make his mark in front of the millions watching, FromTheSpot takes a look back on five players who proved it’s never too late to stop chasing your dream.

Roger Milla – Cameroon

Cameroon icon Roger Milla scored goals wherever he went. In fact, there wasn’t one football club out of the 12 the nomadic striker represented between 1967 and 1996 who he didn’t play for without scoring.

Much like Vozinha, Milla built his memorable career from truly humble beginnings. Born in the capital city Yaoundé, he learnt his trade as a child playing barefoot on dirt roads and streets with an orange or tin can instead of a proper ball.

He didn’t have much choice. The venues of choice and substitutes for a football were microcosmic of the few opportunities Cameroonians had to enter the professional game during the 1950s and 60s.

Milla played an instrumental role in the Indomitable Lions’ qualification for the 1982 World Cup, his first ever finals tournament at the age of 30. But he wouldn’t score a goal, having one ruled out against Peru before bowing out with three draws.

Helping Cameroon to their first ever continental title in the African Cup of Nations two years later, winning another in 1988 when he was deemed Player of the Tournament aged 36. But that World Cup goal still eluded him.

Milla chose to retire from international football prior to the World Cup in 1990, but was convinced out of retirement by manager Paul Biya who wanted him in his team after watching him score a brace in an exhibition charity match.

Following the Cameroonian president’s plea, Milla came out of retirement and finally scored his maiden World Cup goal, then added three more in Italy as Cameroon became the first African nation to reach the quarter finals.

The now African Footballer of the Year returned again four years later at 42, an age that is quite unheard of among outfield players competing at the highest level of football nowadays.

The forward set a new record as the oldest player to partake in the tournament that would stand until 2014 and immortalized himself as a legend of Cameroonian football.

Like Vohzinha, Milla’s story is one that every football fan should read about and be inspired by.

Jamie Vardy – England

Former Leicester striker and the hero of their 5000/1 title winning season, Jamie Vardy is one of the best stories to emerge from English football over the past decade. Similarly to Vozinha, his career wouldn’t take off for some time.

Vardy began his career with Stockbridge Park Steels aged 16 and earning £30 a week, after being released by Sheffield Wednesday judged not to be good enough to break through to the first team.

Scoring 40 goals in 88 appearances for the non-league club, then 26 goals in three less matches for Halifax Town, the striker gradually made his way up the football pyramid and after impressing at Fleetwood Town finally got his big move.

Ahead of the 2012/13 season he became the most expensive player to be signed from non-league in history, joining Leicester for a reported £1.7m with add-ons applied to the total value. The rest is history.

He was an integral part of both the teams that earned promotion from to the Premier League, mounted one of the greatest escapes in its history, and then go on and win it in one of the best sporting stories ever told.

At 31 years old, Vardy made his World Cup debut as a substitute in England’s 6-1 thrashing of Panama at Russia’s tournament back in 2018, where he made a further three appearances.

Though he would never score at the finals, he was stuck behind that World Cup’s golden boot winner and eventual England captain Harry Kane. Vardy’s presence alone was a phenomenal achievement made possible by perseverance.

His one goal at a major tournament came at Euro 2016 when he sparked the Three Lions’ comeback against Wales in the group stage, a moment to inspire the masses that was overshadowed by his country’s underachievement that year.

Sergei Ignashevich – Russia

A CSKA Moscow legend with over 300 appearances between 2004 and 2018, Sergei Ignashevich was 34 when he made the World Cup squad heading off to play in Brazil.

Widely considered as one of the best defenders in Russian Premier League history, he had steadily built up a great career in the capital winning top flight titles with both Lokomotiv and CSKA as well as the UEFA Cup final in 2005.

Quite remarkable was Russia reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2008, in which Ignashevich made a significant contribution as part of the back line, but was still without an appearance at the World Cup.

He hit two birds with one stone in Brazil by making his 100th international cap against Algeria in the group stage, becoming only the second Russian after Viktor Onokpo to reach that landmark for his country.

Although his next appearance at the tournament when Russia hosted in 2018 would see him score an own goal against Spain in the round of 16, he made up for it by converting his spot kick to help them progress on penalties.

He then did the same against Croatia despite being defeated in the quarter-final shootout with the game locked at 2-2, but as one of just four players at the tournament born in the 1970s he had given all he can for his country before retiring that year.

Ignashevich was an exemplary defender whose commitment and longevity aided Russia to a memorable run in the World Cup on home soil, in which he was one of the most senior footballers present.

Essam El Hadary – Egypt

An active international for Egypt since 1996 before retiring after the World Cup in Russia, Essam El Hadary built up a brilliant career with his country that took the form of four African Cup of Nations victories.

He represented Egypt 159 times on the international stage, and became the oldest player to do so at the World Cup aged 45 years and 161 days, beating Faryd Mondragon’s existing record of 43 years and three days.

El Hadary would mark his debut at the tournament with a penalty save in the first half, a show of his first-class goalkeeping ability that remained with him even on the verge of hanging up his boots shortly after the tournament.

His penalty save being the first of any African goalkeeper at the World Cup was honoured in November 2019 when FIFA exhibited El Hadary’s gloves worn during that game, a day that set not just one but two records in front of millions.

Vozinha – Cape Verde

Well, here we are. The man whose timeless performance against Spain brought on this journey in the first place.

Vozinha’s masterclass in goal was timeless not only for the sheer defiance the goalkeeper, born Josimar Dias, made of his 40 years on planet Earth, but also for how long it will stand in the memory of football fans everywhere.

The goalkeeper couldn’t hide his emotions at full-time, making seven phenomenal stops to keep out the European champions and write his name into Cape Verdean history by being a key player in securing a first ever World Cup point. On debut.

His mother wasn’t at the game in Los Angeles since she was unable to afford a visa to get into the US and watch her son put in the performance that will define his career, but will feel immense pride at watching the goalkeeper make brilliant save after brilliant save.

Vozinha had captured the hearts of so many across the world that his number of Instagram followers rose from roughly 20,000 to over four million in the space of 90 magical minutes of football. That figure currently stands at over five million.

Ending with an 8.37 match rating on Fotmob, he holds the title for the website’s highest rating of any player at the 2026 World Cup so far. Not bad for someone who began his career aged 25.

These five stories are just five of the many within football that should inspire the masses to believe that it’s never to late to start working towards that dream of yours.

Neither is it too late to stop.

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