IFFHS WORLD RANKINGS - PLAYERS WITH MOST GAMES IN XXI CENTURY


Picture : the active Top 3 of the Ranking - Cristiano Ronaldo leader !


IFFHS World Ranking for Players with Most Games in XXI century
Dani Alves – the 2nd player in XXI Century to reach 1000 games


As we have reported, Dani Alves has reached on 6 February 1000 top-level games in his career. We take this opportunity to publish an updated IFFHS ranking for the players with the most top-level matches over this century. 
11 players in total have reached 900 games. Among them, 8 are active (taken in bold) and 3 retired. João Moutinho, Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Ramos crossed the 900-game milestone in 2021.
We have also included in the table further 10 players who are below 900 games in XXI but have amassed this sum adding the games played in XX century, with the condition that significant majority of their games (not less than 65 percent) were held in XXI. Such players can conditionally be named as “players of XXI century”.
So, along with main ranking (Total XXI) belonging 11 members we put also an extended parallel ranking Total Career where the mentioned category of players is included as well. 
This parallel ranking is led by Rogério Ceni (1214 games) while Cristiano Ronaldo is 2nd in it.
For the players who have games in both centuries, those held in XX are taken in brackets in the particular columns (NL, NC, ICC, NT).
In the entire history of world football, Dani Alves became the 16th player (and the second Brazilian after Rogério Seni) to reach 1000 matches.
As for the next ticket in this “Club 1000”, it will likely be handed over to Yasuhito Endō (Japan), who is still continuing his career in the strongest national division at the age of 42. Now he has 993 matches.


 PLAYERS WITH MOST GAMES        
 IN XXI CENTURY        
          
 PlayerCountryGames   TotalTotalTotal
   NLNCICCNTXXIXXCareer
1Cristiano RonaldoPortugal 630931971841104 1104
2Dani AlvesBrazil5921151721211000 1000
3Iker CasillasSpain585 (+41)57 (+5)171 (+22)161 (+6)974741048
4Lionel MessiArgentina 533101163158955 955
5Zlatan Ibrahimović  Sweden 595 (+6)72 (+3)1521209399948
6Xavi Spain 536 (+51)95 (+7)174 (+21)132 (+1)937801017
7João MoutinhoPortugal534104142142922 922
8Yasuhito EndōJapan575 (+69)116 (+15)6615290984993
9Andrés IniestaSpain52896151131906 906
 Sergio RamosSpain51269145180906 906
11Rogério CeniBrazil675 (+198)71 (+67) 149 (+37)9 (+8)9043101214
 Javier ZanettiArgentina 449 (+268)50 (+28)128 (+34)90 (+53)7173831100
 Gianluigi BuffonItaly528 (+147)36 (+15)133 (+34)160 (+16)8572121069
 RaúlSpain454 (+231)57 (+20)115 (+55)62 (+40)6883461034
 Frank Lampard England507 (+133)105 (+25)124 (+10)105 (+1)8411691010
 Timmy SimonsBelgium571 (+82)64 (+5)116 (+12)9484599944
 Oswaldo Sánchez  Mexico512 (+213)13 (+21)57 (+24)88 (+11)670269939
 Zé RobertoBrazil492 (+148)57 (+16)121 (+18)38 (+46)708228936
 Thierry Henry France422 (+174)39 (+18)96 (+45)98 (+25)655262917
 Petr Čech Czech Republic552 (+15)75 (+1)138 (+4)12488920909
 Dirk Kuyt Netherlands553 (+77)60 (+10)9910481687903


All games at top senior level are counted (top national divisions, national cups, official international club tournaments, official games between national teams).
Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision).

Period:
from January 1, 2001 to February 10, 2022 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to February 10, 2022 (for the ranking Total Career).

Abbreviatures:
NL – National League
NC – National Cups
ICC – International Club Competitions
NT – National Team