The countdown to the 2026 World Cup is on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
Goalkeepers have the ability to play into their later 30s and even 40s, but forward Roger Milla showed that age wasn’t going to slow him down to help Cameroon.
After helping Cameroon qualify for the 1982 World Cup, Milla retired six years later from international duty. But when his country’s president contacted him in 1990 to help the squad at the World Cup, he answered the call for the Indomitable Lions.
Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season
Despite scrutiny about his return to the squad, the 38-year-old Milla went on to make an impact for Cameroon by scoring four times during the tournament off the bench, making him the oldest goalscorer in the competition’s history. Cameroon would win Group B, which included a victory over reigning champions Argentina, before falling in the quarterfinals to England after extra time.
What Milla did in Italy later earned him the honor of being named African Footballer of the Year.
Four years later, Milla wasn’t done helping his country. At the 1994 World Cup in the United States, he scored against Russia in the final group game at 42 years and 39 days old to break his own record as the oldest goalscorer at a World Cup. Cameroon would not match its success from Italia ’90 as it would exit following the group stage.