Perusing the final squads today I had the shock of my life to see Wilfred Bouma in the Dutch camp. He'll turn 34 during the tournament and if forced to guess I would have hazarded that he'd retired through injury rather than been turning out regularly for PSV.

Any others?

Bouma is in the Van Bronckhorst role this time around.

Greece has a keeper who is 38.

Is Bouma first choice left back?

Looks like he played there in their last friendly, which is a bit scary.

I'm continually surprised to see Dennis Rommedahl at international tournaments, but he's still going strong.

Disappointingly Jan Koller won't be there. It won't be the same.

ursus arctos wrote:


Picked since Mathijsen got an injury in the game against Bulgaria.

It's tempting to say James Milner. he seems to have been around for ages on the fringe of the England team. He's just 26 years old. He's nearly 3 years younger than Jermaine Defoe. He's 18 months younger than Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson. He's younger than Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young and Gary Cahill. It's quite feasible that he could still be around, warming the bench, at Euro 2020.

Rommedahl's a great call. There's every chance we'll see a direct match-up between him and Bouma (though I've seen claims Schaars or Willems might be starting Dutch left back), it'll be like a Masters tournament.

wow, I can't believe that wilfred bouma is still playing football, never mind international football. he barely kicked a ball for villa in his last two years.

There's always someone in the dutch squad that makes you wonder whether all that palaver they go on with half the time isn't all an elaborate joke the play at our expense. this year it is Wilfred. Why do they have a 34 year old left back this... lacking in the dutch team.

Bouma in action during their most recent friendly (about 5 seconds in).

I don't think anybody understands why Van Marwijk included him in the squad. He's dropped both Urby Emanuelson and Vurnon Anita for this clown.

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:


Because our defense is shit. That's also why the Van Bommel/De Jong pairing at midfield is necessary. Van Marwijk would much prefer to play with an extra offensive midfielder like Van der Vaart, but he cannot afford that since we need the extra defensive help Van Bommel and De Jong bring.

I see that Olof Mellberg is in the Sweden squad. It seems ages since he left Villa.

In my head Pirlo is about 80 (I think mostly because he reminds me of Livia Soprano). in reality he's only 33 and probaly has a shot at going to the next world cup

i realise that everyone knows that he's still playong, but if England reach the final, and Ashley Cole plays every game, it'll be his 100th cap in the final.

ursus arctos wrote:


Not unusual though, is it? David Seaman played until he was 39. Oliver Kahn was playing when he was about 37.

Dino Zoff captained Italy to the World Cup aged 40.

Which also means Dino Zoff must be 70 now, bloody hell.

Doraemon wrote:


I've spent that last week thinking "Bloody hell! He really is too old to be selected" until I realised I've had him confused with a fellow ex-Villa Swede, 38 year old Marcus Allback.

Stumpy Pepys wrote:


Half the Greek squad is over 30- Karagounis, Katsouranis, Gekas, Salpigidis... Liberopoulos is nearly 37 and he's a forward. Almost old enough to qualify for the Python sketch.

mirko bolesan wrote:


Cheer up, Milan Baros is still an integral member of the team