At 39-years-old, Mexico’s Rafael Márquez will be the second oldest player at the 2018 World Cup, and the former Barcelona man will retire when Mexico’s tournament comes to an end.
Like Márquez, Tim Cahill and Sergei Ignashevich were born in 1979, but their birthdays come later in the year.
The oldest participant at the tournament will be 45-year-old Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, who will become the oldest player in World Cup history, but Márquez will himself be breaking, or at least equalling, a Word Cup record.
Should he take to the field during this tournament, which he’s likely to do from the bench, he’ll join fellow Mexican Antonio Carbajal and German legend Lothar Matthäus as the only players to have played in five World Cups. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been present at five, but only played in four of these as he was behind Francesco Toldo and Gianluca Pagliuca in the pecking order at the 1998 edition in France.
The journey to this World Cup has been anything but a romantic farewell tour for Márquez, or metaphorical lap of honour for one of Mexico’s most decorated players.
He is currently under sanction from the United States Treasury Department, who accuse him of using his businesses as a legitimate front for handling money related to a drug trafficking organisation led by Raul Flores Hernandez.
Back in August 2017, Business Insider explained the situation:
“The Office of Foreign Assets Control designed Raul Flores Hernandez and the Flores drug-trafficking organization under the Kingpin Act, naming 21 Mexican citizens and 42 entities — including bars, restaurants, a soccer club, and a casino — for allegedly providing support to the organization or for being owned by people involved it.”
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Mexican legend.
Márquez and his companies were among those “Mexican citizens and entities”. The Treasury themselves released a press release which said:
“Today's Office of Foreign Assets Control designations include Mexican professional soccer player, Rafael Marquez Alvarez (Rafa Marquez), and Mexican singer Julio Cesar Alvarez Montelongo (Julion Alvarez).
“Both men have long standing relationships with Flores Hernandez, and have acted as front persons for him and his DTO and held assets on their behalf. Also designated today are Mauricio Heredia Horner and Marco Antonio Fregoso Gonzalez for acting for or on behalf of Rafa Márquez.”
Márquez has denied the charges, and he has not been convicted of any crimes.
“In the same way I have done throughout my professional career I will confront this, my most difficult match,” he said last year.
While this saga is set to drag on, Márquez will now be trying to focus on the task in hand, but he is regularly reminded of this problem away from the game, especially when he is unable to don the names of any US based sponsors during training. He’ll be seen wearing a plain training shirt, while his team-mates display the logos of Coca Cola and Citibank.
Márquez has always been a winner. He won the Confederations Cup with his country in 1999, and his first club league title with Monaco a year later. He went on to win four league titles and two Champions Leagues with Barcelona, also adding two CONCACAF Gold Cups to his medal collection.
Making the squad for this World Cup amid his personal troubles is another win for Márquez. In his final games of competitive football he’ll be trying to help Mexico get to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1986 when they hosted the tournament. They have qualified from their group at the previous six World Cups, but on each occasion they exited at the first knockout round.
Reaching the quarter-finals in Russia would be a victory in itself for Mexico. Márquez’s experience at four of the aforementioned six World Cups, plus his experience of winning, will help the team whether he takes to the field or not.
