Mateos Gonzalez’s painting done with artificial intelligence, Photo: CD Colunga
Advaid Ryan
BBC, sports
Angel Mateos Gonzalez, a former miner and now a goalkeeper, proves that age is just a number.
When this 70-year-old puts on the gloves of the Kolunga club in a match against the visiting team Pravijan on May 3rd, he will allegedly become the oldest player in history at an officially played match in this European country.
Mateos has been called up to the squad for the fifth match of the Spanish league, which includes clubs from the Asturias region, in order to pay him “tribute”, Colunga said.
He originally retired from competitive football at the age of 43.
“This is not a record or an oddity, but a tribute,” the Asturian club announced on the social network Instagram.
“Mateos represents exactly everything we stand for at Colunga – passion, consistency, respect for football and a way of life in sport that transcends age.”
“We are talking about a man who was a miner and devoted his life to work and football. This is not about numbers, but about values, and if one looks only at his age, one misses the point,” the announcement reads.
Gonzalez has been helping the club’s goalkeepers this season, guiding and supporting them behind the scenes.
Mateos Gonzalez doesn’t know yet if he will play the whole game, but he is still ready for challenges, he told local media.
“I’m still mobile,” Gonzalez said.
He is 172 centimeters tall and during his career played for Turón, Caudal and Santiago de Aller, teams at a similar level of play to Colunga.
“I stayed active, playing for the team of the company Hunosa, the veteran team of Turona and I still play, and when I started, it was almost a different sport – balls, fields…
“I remember holding a kettle next to the goal so that, without the referee seeing me, I could get water when the pitch got muddy, which was almost every day,” he recalled.
The upcoming game is not so important for Kolunga, tenth in the table of 18 teams in the league.
They still have two games to go before the end of the season, but they are relieved of the pressure of being relegated.
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