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RUSSIA 2018 GETS AN ELDER STATESMAN

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KUNLE SOLAJA.

When the World Cup kicks off in Russia on June 14, most football followers will be counting on record. The next day at Ekaterinburg Arena, Egypt will take on Uruguay. That encounter will create a record of the longest span between two consecutive World Cup matches by a team.

Egypt last played in the World Cup on June 21, 1990, making a span of 27 years, 11 months 25 days since their last World Cup match, a 0-1 loss at Cagliari.

On the other hand, Uruguay will be presenting the oldest coach in World Cup history. At 71 years old, Uruguay’s Oscar Tabarez is the oldest manager in the 32-team field.

Tabarez’s Uruguay teams have qualified for four World Cups, and he has coached more games for one national team than anybody in history.

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He is also on the list of football managers with most games. In September 2016, he surpassed an earlier record of 167 matches held by former West Germany’s Sepp Herberger and Denmark’s Morten Olsen’s 166 matches as national team manager with just one team.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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