“There is Robert Carmona for a while,” says the oldest footballer in the world. A man capable of shattering age thanks to a privileged physique, but not only. Despite not having been born on the Japanese island of Okinawa (Japan), Carmona, 61, shares with the Japanese some of the secrets of a long sporting life: his diet is healthy, he does physical activity daily and has friends in the 48 teams from various countries around the world in which he has played. But, above all, he has a good reason to get up every morning: football.
While Celia Edivia Rodríguez, his wife, takes over at the wheel and resumes the journey towards the city of Maldonado (Uruguay), Carmona prepares to review his football career in the next seat. “I was born on April 30, 1962. In 1976 I debuted when I was 14 years old with Doctor Pouey’s team from the city of Las Piedras, in the department of Canelones in Uruguay,” he begins. “Since then I have been on 48 teams, in some cases two or three times at different times,” he says. “Several of them have disappeared, others were officials, others semi-professionals, there are those from the interior of my country that did not have such significance, but all of them were federated. I have come to compete when I was young with a player and many years later with his grandson,” he surprises. “But, as I already said, there is Robert Carmona for a long time: I feel like I am 20 years old.”
His diet is spartan (in terms of quantity) and healthy (in terms of food choices): he does not eat sugar, he avoids salt, fried foods, red meat (“I eat meat once a year anyway” , he confesses, a rarity for a Uruguayan) and the desserts. Prepare toast with whole wheat bread or low-fat yogurt with oats. He also drinks plenty of water and drinks a lot of malt, as well as mate. “I haven’t had a Coca-Cola in more than 45 years,” he confesses.
“I was very affected by the death of my father, who was 35 years old and died of a heart attack because he didn’t take care of himself. A while later my brother died of cancer from drinking alcohol and smoking,” Carmona acknowledges. “Once, in my early years, a teammate scolded me because I missed a penalty, after having stayed up late. He told me that I had stolen his money. And he was right, because when we missed the penalty our team lost and we didn’t get paid. The day before, like any teenager, I danced and stayed up late with girls, so I arrived at the game exhausted. All this has marked me to lead a healthy life,” she says.
“My life slogan could be: football is health,” summarizes this player who has been on the playing fields for 47 years and who chairs the NGO “Make a Goal for Life” to help those who need it most.
“You have to be professional in everything, because without commitment, sacrifice and love you cannot succeed in anything in life. You don’t have to wait for things to fall from the sky; “You have to go look for them,” she says vehemently.
“I am currently 1.75 m tall (“but I am getting smaller, because when I was 20 I was almost 1.80 m tall,” he jokes) and I weigh between 72 and 74 kilos,” he details. “For the trip I’m taking right now in the car, I’m taking nuts, almonds, dried fruit and I’ll also drink mate with my wife, who, being a pediatrician, helps me a lot in taking care of myself,” she reveals.
“I don’t consume food supplements, vitamins, additives, or anything strange,” he reports to imply that his magic is deployed only on the playing field, without resorting to prohibited substances, superfoods or any other product arising from the bowels of marketing departments.
“I live from morning to night by and for football, but not watching football, nor going to football, nor being a fan of any player or club, but rather playing football and transmitting the message that sport has to serve to eradicate violence, transmit values ??to boys and girls and keep them away from alcohol, tobacco and drugs,” he points out.
Otherwise, Carmona doesn’t take naps, although he says he gets enough sleep. “I can’t tell you any secrets to combat stress, because I don’t feel nervous and if I am, I can’t realize it,” she continues.
“Every day I wake up wanting to go to train, even though I will soon be 62 years old,” he says. “I live the day ahead, as we say in Uruguay. I’m never sitting down doing nothing, because when I’m not active I don’t feel well,” reveals this “young man” in relation to the youthful tingle that leads him to face each day as if it were his last.
It goes without saying that Carmona trains daily, night or day, rain or shine. “Every day I go jogging, I ride a bike, I swim, I do weights, I practice ball control, I tone up and I stretch,” he details about his modus operandi. “When I don’t have a gym at hand, I do it at home with chairs and boxes; If I don’t have weights on hand, I make them myself and if I don’t have a bicycle, I borrow it: nothing stops me, because I always train, even at night, if I haven’t had time during the day,” he warns.
“When I was living in Barcelona, ??for example, I would go running at two in the morning and I would go from near the Olympic Village to the FC Barcelona field,” he explains.
“Currently I am not able to play 90 minutes. Some coaches tell me that they don’t take me out to take care of me, but that bothers me, because I take care of myself,” he warns about his current state of form. The last team where Carmona played was CD Iraklis from Sant Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante), a club in group 12 of the third regional category of the Valencian Community.
Laureano Martín, “Lauren” to his friends, is the secretary, sports director and coach of this modest club that emerged in 2006. In his opinion, Robert Carmona is a “phenomenon, both on and off the field of play.” And shortly after debuting he was injured, leaving the Alicante fans with honey on their lips.
It happened in October 2023 while Carmona was playing a friendly match against Mediterráneo CF, taking advantage of a league break. Carmona suffered a fibrillar tear in his left leg that forced him to be in dry dock for three months. It was then when he decided to return to Uruguay to recover from the injury in the company of his family. Since then, he has not stopped training to reappear as soon as possible.
A few years ago, Carmona played as a midfielder and was in charge of taking free kicks, but now he has moved back in his position and plays as a central defender, despite having played throughout his career with the number 10 on his back like Leo Messi ( “I’m dying to go see Messi,” he admits), Diego Armando Maradona, Ronaldinho (“let’s not forget about him”), Neymar, Mbappé or Pelé.
“We have the idea that Robert Carmona will stay with us for a long time. “We are building a team with a strong base of Uruguayan players,” says Lauren Martín, the orchestra man of CD Iraklis, whose wife presides over the club.
However, while he was recovering from his injury in Uruguay, a team located 7 kilometers from Buenos Aires has shown great interest in signing him so that he can play starting next March in the Primera División C of Argentina (the equivalent of the fourth category).
If he signs for the 49th club of his career, Carmona will blow out 62 candles on his birthday cake next April with the positive attitude that characterizes him. He is not sure if he will accept her. Not in vain, he has declared on occasion that playing in the lower categories of South America is like stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson.
The proverbial optimism of the immortal number 10 motivated a group of psychologists to want to study it in 2022 to see where the “Carmona legend” is going. Regarding this, he points out: “I have always maintained a positive attitude despite having had a difficult life since my childhood, since my father died when I was very young. Children in Africa who don’t eat, people who die of cancer or abused people have problems. What problem can I have when I traveled the world, met Maradona and made my family live off of what I achieved,” he says.
In reality, Robert Carmona is far from singing the swan song. What’s more, talking to him conveys the feeling that this has only just begun…
“I dream of being able to achieve some goals. But, if I don’t achieve them, I won’t feel like a failure. I would like, for example, to play in Dubai, Qatar, Mexico and, of course, return to Europe. “I do not rule out returning to CD Iraklis because Alicante is a very beautiful place and the president is a great person,” he says, referring to Martín.
“In 2014, for the first time, I obtained the Guinness Record for the oldest player in history. But I’m going for more,” he warns. “The Oldest Activity Soccer Player, the oldest active soccer player in the world, is what he puts in the prize,” says this sixty-year-old who says he agrees with Picasso’s famous phrase: “When you are really young, you it’s forever”.