“I still feel flexible”
Spanish football club employs 70-year-olds
April 30, 2026 – 11:46 a.mReading time: 1 min.
CD Colunga plays in Spain’s fifth division. The club could set a record in the next game. A goalkeeper should appear who ended his career 37 years ago.
Spanish fifth division club CD Colunga plans to use 70-year-old Angel Mateos Gonzales as goalkeeper on Sunday. According to media reports, this would make him the oldest player ever to appear in an official match in Spain.
The club from northern Spain justified the decision in a post on social networks. “We are not dealing with a record, but with recognition. Mateos embodies exactly what we stand for at CD Colunga: passion, consistency, respect for football and a way of living the sport that transcends age,” the club wrote.
Gonzales served as CD Colunga’s goalkeeper manager this season. According to the club, he ended his active career at the age of 43 – after stints at Turon, Caudal and Santiago de Aller.
The game against Praviano has no sporting significance for Colunga: two match days before the end of the season, the club is in tenth place out of 18 teams in the Tercera Federación, neither in danger of relegation nor with any chance of promotion.
Gonzales told the local newspaper “Las Provincias” that he didn’t know whether he would last the full 90 minutes. “I still feel flexible.”