RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian club Fluminense says goalkeeper Fabio has broken the world record for most competitive soccer matches played with his 1,391st appearance, surpassing the mark set by former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton in the 1990s.
Fluminense said the 44-year-old Fabio pulled ahead of Shilton in the team's 2-0 win over Colombian club America de Cali in the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana. Fluminense advanced 4-1 on aggregate.
Fabio was honored by his club after the match at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro with a commemorative plaque and an image marking the record. Fluminense’s goalkeeper wore a patch mentioning the milestone.
South America’s soccer governing body CONMEBOL also congratulated him on reaching 1,391 career appearances.
“It is a tremendous satisfaction to reach this record wearing the Fluminense jersey, which opened the doors for me,” Fabio said. “Now it’s time to keep playing and strive for new achievements with every game.”
There is no single official soccer body that tracks players’ appearances across domestic and international competitions, which makes record-keeping complicated and subject to disputes about what counts as a competitive match.
However, Shilton was widely seen as the record-holder for most competitive games played. Guinness World Records had him at 1,390 appearances in all competitions, though Shilton's personal count is 1,387. The discrepancy comes down to which matches should count as official senior appearances.
Fabio began his career in the late 1990s, playing mostly with Brazilian club Cruzeiro. He has 976 appearances with Cruzeiro, 235 with Fluminense, 150 with Vasco da Gama and 30 with Uniao Bandeirante.
Fabio helped lead Fluminense, which he joined in 2022, to the semifinals of the Club World Cup earlier this year. He was a key player in the team’s maiden Copa Libertadores title in 2023.
Fabio played for Brazil's youth teams but never for the country's senior squad.
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FILE - Fluminense's Fabio watches a shot on goal by Chelsea go wide during the second half of a Club World Cup semifinal soccer match in East Rutherford, N.J., July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
AL HENAKIYAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Ricky Brabec deliberately gave up his motorbike lead over Luciano Benavides in the Dakar Rally while Nasser Al-Attiyah was happy to cruise through another day closer to his sixth car title on Thursday.
Al-Attiyah started 346-kilometer stage 11 between Bisha north to Al Henakiyah with a 12-minute overall lead and let it drop to less than nine minutes over new second-placed driver Nani Roma in a Ford.
Al-Attiyah was content to let Dacia teammate Sébastien Loeb catch up and pass him to have a teammate nearby for any help and to minimize errors on the mazy, dirt track. Al-Attiyah was 17th, nearly 13 minutes behind stage winner Mattias Ekström, and said he needed to execute the same plan on Friday's last effective racing stage before the end on Saturday.
“If we lose two, three, four minutes no problem,” Al-Attiyah said. “We just need to finish this Dakar in first place.”
Honda cooked up a strategy in the Saudi desert for Adrien van Beveren to open the way and let Brabec catch up after the 190-kilometer pit stop and pick up time bonuses.
Brabec boosted his overall lead from 56 seconds to nearly four minutes just 25 kilometers from the finish. He was also within a minute of the stage lead but he slowed down so KTM rival Benavides was the new overall leader, but only by 23 seconds.
Brabec got his his wish to start Friday's stage 12 six minutes behind Benavides, so he can eye him. They head west to the rally starting point of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast on 311 kilometers of gravel, some river beds with a finish in the dunes.
“A little bit of strategy today and hopefully it pays off tomorrow,” Brabec said. "I feel like its going to be a good day. We’re going back into the rocks so it will be a little bit better for us.”
Brabec is counting on his experience of winning the Dakar in 2020 and 2024 to trump Benavides, who has a best placing of fourth last year.
“I've been in this situation before,” Brabec said. “For the whole two weeks I've been just trying to stay relax, stay comfortable and just be confident, so two days more. I'm gonna do the same thing tomorrow that I've been doing every day; ride dirt bikes and have fun.”
Van Beveren helped Brabec with navigation while fighting with another teammate, Skyler Howes, the entire day for the stage win.
Howes prevailed by 21 seconds for his first career major stage in his eighth Dakar. He was third in 2023 and sixth last year. He's running fifth, 34 minutes off the pace.
Benavides was fourth in the stage and believed the race will be decided on the final 105-kilometer sprint on Saturday.
“I played no strategy like Ricky. I don't care,” Benavides said. “I'm doing what I can to control what I can control.”
Ekström won his third car stage of this Dakar, a special so fast that 12 other drivers were within 10 minutes.
Ford achieved another 1-2-3 stage. Romain Dumas, a three-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, was a career-best second just over a minute back and Carlos Sainz was third.
Only Toyota's Henk Lategan beat Ekström to a checkpoint but Lategan's podium hopes were wrecked after 140 kilometers when a bearing broke on his rear left wheel. Lategan was second last year and second overall overnight but he plunged out of the top 15, at least.
Loeb moved up to third overall, 10 minutes behind Roma and three minutes ahead of Ekström.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Rider Daniel Sanders competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Fabian Lurquin compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Rider Skyler Howes competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Henk Lategan, left, and co-driver Brett Cummings repair their car during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Driver Nani Roma and co-driver Alex Haro compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
