Ildefons Lima Solà played for Andorra’s national team for 26 years. The central defender scored eleven goals in 136 games, making him Andorra’s record goalscorer. Now he said goodbye with a point win.
Lima ended his career with brief words: “Today is the last game of my career in Andorra against Belarus”, he wrote on social networks. Behind this sentence there is a lot of effort and numerous games for a team that almost never wins.
Lima came on as a substitute in the last minute against Belarus, making his 136th and final international appearance.
Andorra almost always loses, Lima was almost always there
Andorra has been a member of FIFA since 1996. Just a year later, Lima played his first international match for Andorra, a friendly against Estonia. In this game he also scored for the first time – but the team lost 1:4.
The senior national team of Andorra is used to defeats, they have played around 200 times to date and lost a good 80 percent of their games. Lima was in the squad for numerous games even without playing – he was the team’s constant. Lima was born in Barcelona, but the family moved to Andorra when he was a child.
Ildefons Lima says goodbye at the age of 43.
Biggest success: win against Hungary in 2017
There were numerous defeats for Lima, but there were a few successes: their first win was against Belarus in 2000, followed by a 2-0 win against Albania in 2002.
Unlucky: He missed a 1-0 win against Macedonia in 2004 due to a yellow-red suspension. Perhaps his greatest success came in 2017 when he won 1-0 with Andorra against Hungary. He celebrated his last of seven wins against Liechtenstein in 2022.
Ildefons Lima during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Turkey
Record goalscorer with only eleven goals – and in the Guinness Book
His last goal came against San Marino in 2017, it was his eleventh. This makes him the record goalscorer and he is also the record player with 136 games. In June, the 43-year-old became the oldest player to ever play a European Championship qualifier.
Lima also holds an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest international football career, which has now lasted more than 24 years. Lima played for clubs in Spain, Greece, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland and Andorra during his career. At least he had one success at the end: the 0-0 draw against Belarus was his second point win in qualifying for the 2024 European Championship in Germany.