Aged 41 years and 98 days, Formiga stepped onto the pitch in Grenoble on Sunday and without even kicking the ball the unassuming Brazilian wrote a new page in Women’s World Cup history.
The oldest record breaker
When Formiga made her World Cup debut against Japan on June 7,1995,150 of the players who will be in France for this year’s tournament were yet to be born.
Not only has she broken the record for the most separate World Cup’s appeared in by either a male or female player, but she also surpassed American Christie Rampone’s record by becoming the competition’s oldest ever player.
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder is also third in the all-time appearance standings having appeared in 24 Women’s World Cup matches.
Top scorer
Five-time world player of the year Marta has won almost everything there is to win in football.
But although this is the 33-year-old’s fifth World Cup, she has found that World Cup title elusive, coming closest in 2007 when she finished as a runner-up.
The Brazilian has had a plenty of goalscoring success at the World Cup though, as she’s scored 15 goals in her 17 matches at the finals.
Next closest is Germany’s Birgit Prinz and USA’s Abby Wambach who both have 14 goals at World Cups.
Highest attendance
Whilst recent World Cups have attracted bigger TV audiences, the record attendance is still held by the 1999 World Cup finals.
Seen by many as a watershed moment for women’s football, the 1999 World Cup tournament still holds records for the highest total attendance (1.194 million) and highest average attendance (37,319 per match).
Alongside the 90,185 people that saw the USA beat China in the final, 17.
