BY THE TIME professional soccer players turn 40, most are talking about their careers in the past tense. Across the previous 22 FIFA World Cups, just one non-goalkeeper could talk about life as an over-40 player in the sport's greatest tournament: Cameroon's Roger Milla.
Milla set Italia '90 alight with his wiggly hips celebration at the corner flag. He was there again in USA '94 as a 42-year-old, 24 years and 42 days older than teenage teammate Rigobert Song.
But after this summer's tournament, Milla will have company. Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is playing his sixth World Cup at the age of 41. Croatia's Luka Modrić, 40, will play his fifth World Cup. And 42-year-old Qatar striker Sebastian Soria could yet feature.
Then there's Bosnia-Herzegovina's Edin Džeko, 40, who has steered his country to its second-ever World Cup. "I'm so happy I can lead this team as captain, this great new generation, to the World Cup and many more to come," Džeko told ESPN.
Is it a coincidence that in a single World Cup, one player in the over-40 club could possibly be joined by four others? Are they just unique, durable talents who have kept their bodies and minds as active as ever and remained indispensable to their country? Or do advancements in sports science, nutrition and management mean this will become far more frequent in editions to come?
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AN AUDIENCE WITH DZEKO is a humbling thing. After leading his club, Schalke 04, back to the Bundesliga, he flits between three languages while speaking with a large group of journalists. He fields questions about his time in Turkey, his tough six-month spell at Fiorentina, his love of Switzerland, playing for former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, and Bosnia-Herzegovina's World Cup prospects. Džeko is refreshed, excited, fully in love with the sport. But it wasn't like this back in December.
His career has taken him from Teplice to Wolfsburg, Manchester City, Roma and Internazionale. He played in the 2014 World Cup -- Bosnia-Herzegovina's first as a country after gaining independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. After playing for Fenerbahce from 2023 to '25, he moved to Fiorentina. But he didn't click with the club. In dark moments earlier in the 2025-26 season, he thought his career was done. "When the results are not going well, when you're not playing like I wasn't at Fiorentina, there's a lot going on in the head," Džeko says.
Perhaps 40 was the end of his playing career. As the January window opened, he looked at offers, including a lucrative approach from Paris FC. But there was also one from Schalke, the German fallen giants who were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga in 2021.
"In January, I needed some more love, something more emotional [than Fiorentina]. With Schalke, these fans and stadium are special and give me energy and emotional positivity, which means that you work hard in training and each match. ... Even after 20 years, having had almost everything, it still feels good and helps you continue," Džeko says.
Also at the forefront of his mind was the World Cup. Bosnia-Herzegovina were in the UEFA playoffs and had to win two straight matches to qualify. Up first were Wales in the semifinals; Džeko scored Bosnia-Herzegovina's equalizer, and they advanced on penalties. Against Italy in the final, he assisted Haris Tabakovic's equalizer before they won another penalty shootout. "We had a tough path," Džeko said. "But as we prepared, we felt this positive energy, and the team really showed the quality of their personality and character."
At the World Cup, he'll captain his country and play alongside a group of younger players who grew up idolizing him.
"What can you not learn?" Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic said in March. "As a striker who has always been your idol, you should analyze every step he makes, because to perform like that at that age is unbelievable. ... He's a huge player, not only now and not only for Bosnians."
There's an age difference of 21 years and six months between Džeko and teammate Kerim Alajbegovic, 18. "When I stand next to them, I'm like 'Oh, bro, I'm 22 years older than you,'" Džeko says. "It's crazy, but also means I did some good things in the past, and it means that I worked hard."
What's the secret to Džeko's longevity? "There's pain everywhere in the morning," he says. "You need a few minutes, when you stand up, it hurts, but it's your body updating you and helps keep your body in good shape.
"I could never have imagined still playing at 40 years old. But I always try to help my body, my legs, and over the last 10 years, you need to work a little bit more than when you were 20. ... But I love training, because at the end you have to be healthy and fit to play at this level, and you need to have a love for football still."
One thing Džeko has had to sacrifice are his post-training session coffee sessions in favor of recovery and stretching. He has also adapted on the field -- against Wales, Džeko frequently hovered near the halfway line. He occasionally dropped deep to put pressure on the middle third, but he usually played on the shoulder of Wales' last defender, backing his anticipation and nous to prevail against the defenders' youth and pace.
"It comes naturally, because I'm not the same player I was 10 years ago," he says. "I cannot run like I did. But maybe one run less can help you score one goal more. If I run with the young defenders, it'd be tough, but that was never my game. [Instead it is] having quality and scoring, so I try to keep that on my side."
RONALDO'S DEDICATION TO HIS CRAFT is well documented. His fitness regime is plastered all over his social media, as he continues his quest for 250 Portugal caps, and 1,000 professional goals. The man himself said in November: "My body feels good. I want to keep scoring and helping the team. This is my life."
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez knows he is dealing with an "icon of world soccer," but also an "exemplary captain," as he put it at the team's World Cup squad announcement. "Every day, he uses it as an opportunity to be better than yesterday," Martinez said back in January. "You cannot measure the hunger of an individual. ... It's so easy to coach these players, because they want to win.
"They look after themselves to the maximum. They are obsessed with anything to [get] a little advantage. Could be nutrition, could be tactical, could be the opposition; they are obsessed. But they are demanding of the others, and they are demanding of the environment."
Modrić left Real Madrid last summer for AC Milan. He turned 40 last September and scored his first goal for the club against Bologna five days later. "I hope people won't keep mentioning my age anymore," he said. He puts down his longevity to love for the game, while Real Madrid performance manager Antonio Pintus said it's due to his "extraordinary level of professionalism."
"[Luka] takes great care of his training, nutrition, recovery, and above all, he has a mentality that pushes him to never settle," Pintus told Gazzetta dello Sport. "He's a rare example of sporting longevity, the result of daily dedication."
Džeko believes he first played against both over a decade ago, in 2011. "They are hard workers, great players, and it's no coincidence they are still here," Džeko says. "You need to work hard to achieve it. I'm happy for myself and I'm just happy to be in this small circle of great players."
SO HOW HAVE WE GONE from one outfield veteran aged over 40 to potentially an additional four in a single World Cup?
Luís Branquinho is adjunct professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre in Portugal, and co-authored a sports science research paper called "The Aging Curve: How Age Affects Physical Performance in Elite Football." The study -- which analyzed 5,203 individual match performances across 98 players in the Brazilian league from 2020 to 2024 -- quantifies how age impacts performance. It found that players hit their maximum speed capabilities at 25.7 years old, peak endurance at 24.8 and peak explosiveness at 26.
"Bringing in our research, these players are clearly exceptions," Branquinho tells ESPN. "Looking at the body, a player's muscular power starts declining at around 27 or 28 years old. The same with the muscle-twitch fibers. What these players do so well, and their coaches also, is balance the body's natural resistance against this physical activity while keeping the body stable. If a winger loses their velocity power, you move them into the middle where there may be fewer quick runs.
"For Ronaldo, yes, his velocity is decreasing, and his agility, but the resistance stays equal as he's adjusted it all so he can continue."
All this comes at a time where players are struggling with an ever-bloated schedule of matches. FIFPRO says players cannot sustain "high-threshold competitive seasons" year after year and will eventually suffer injuries or declines in performance. PFA CEO Maheta Molango said on a recent FIFPRO conference he fears that this World Cup will not see "the most talented team" win, but instead "it will turn into the survival of the fittest."
"I think you go around global sports and you look at [Los Angeles Lakers star] LeBron James, you are seeing older players who still perform at the highest level -- there's obviously a combination of genetics and training and hopefully management of loads," Juventus performance director Darren Burgess, on behalf of FIFPRO, told ESPN. "With Modrić, having watched him personally this year, his physical output in games is efficient. And with Ronaldo's league, I've got objective data which shows where the Saudi Arabian league is placed physically in terms of output per game. So that certainly helps [these players] perform for a whole lot longer. I'd like to think that it's sports science and load management, but it also could be an outlier."
Malongo has concerns, though. "I think there's also linkage to what happened in the early stage of their career and how soon they were rushed into a high number of games," Malongo said. "Cristiano was not playing 80 games when young, the same with Luka and Edin.
"We did a study on how many matches Jude Bellingham had played at the same age as David Beckham had. It's four times as many. We did the same with [Vinícius Júnior] and Ronaldinho -- three times as much."
Gregory Dupont is a performance director and has spent time as fitness coach with Real Madrid and France, and counts Zinedine Zidane as one of his disciples. "We never really know if we will see other players in their 40s, because these guys are different; they are exceptions, but are motivated to play and they have the mind to succeed," Dupont told ESPN. "They want to win. They want to be there. They know their body and what they can do. They know how to train how, how to cope with the workload. But their match time has been gradual. It'd be a good topic to investigate further."
One other thing that links them? They're all captaining their country. "This comes to trust," Branquinho says. "Maybe they are not the quickest player, but their teammates believe in them. This is so important -- balancing the psychological component with the physical component and their integration and influence on the team.
"But by the 2030 World Cup, I don't think we will have any outfield players aged over 40 who are featuring in the top five [European] leagues. It's just not possible. Perhaps the lesser leagues and countries, but for the elite teams? No."
DZEKO WILL LIKELY BECOME the second over-40 outfield player to play in a World Cup when Bosnia-Herzegovina open their campaign in Toronto against Canada on Friday. Then it's Ronaldo's and Modrić's turn on June 17, with Portugal playing DR Congo in Houston and Croatia tackling England in Dallas.
Džeko hopes this will be a historic campaign beyond his own feat. Bosnia-Herzegovina are looking to make knockouts for the first time. Whenever their campaign comes to an end, Džeko will take a moment to ponder his next step. He'll talk to Schalke about their plans and if they want him there to help with their return to the Bundesliga, and he'll listen to his body to see if he can eke out another season.
Might we even see him at the next World Cup in 2030? After he stops laughing, Džeko answers: "Definitely not. But reaching this World Cup was my big target, and to play at the end of my career with the national team, and also with Schalke, is something special."